Marine Conservation in Mexico

Week three in Pez Maya- diving,Osprey chicks, Cenote diving!

2012-02-09T13:01:00.000-08:00

So we are now at the end of the third week on base, everyone has settled in, are getting used to
their new environment and the general rhythm of base life.

After a couple of days of bad weather initially, which dampened the moods of most people, we all
started diving in earnest with everyone eager to see the coral or fish they had been studying since
sitting through the lectures on land. The other great news is we have three more newly qualified
divers amongst our fold, congratulations to Charlie, Ryan and Patrick for passing their PADI Open
Water Diver course.

The time not diving has not been wasted at all with everyone learning about threats to the reef, fish
behaviour or what to do in an emergency with the Emergency First Responder course. Now that we
all feel a little more educated about our surroundings and a little more comfortable on how to splint
a broken arm, we all hope we’ll be prepared enough if disaster comes knocking…

In the meantime the residential Osprey’s chicks are testing their wings, readying themselves to flee
the nest and terrorize the sea’s inhabitants. A couple of scorpions have also received a one way
ticket into the bushes after being discovered in the sleeping huts. Not all visitors are un-welcome
though; the hut geckos are revered by the human occupants for their ability to swallow copious
amounts of mosquitos each night. The resident base iguanas have also been kind enough to pose for
numerous photographs whilst basking in the sun.

The weekends have given people opportunity to visit the surrounding area. Some choose to explore
the ruins at Cobá whilst others the various night spots of Playa (though be you should really
keep track of where you leave your shoes if you decide to have a dance off barefoot). The more
adventurous have chosen to snorkel or dive in their time off, either the intriguing world of cavern
diving in the Cenotes or, for the truly brave, diving with Bull sharks!

With the return of some unsettled weather we have been getting on with some other activities
involved with volunteering. Teams of volunteers have been making trips to Punta Allen to help
continue the construction of the recycling centre as well as performing a play about pollution to the
local school children. Construction has also started a little closer to home with the retirement of the
old blue tarp roof protecting the compressors for a shiny new varnished wooden one.
So as you can probably tell things are going pretty well here on our little outpost in the Caribbean.

We are keeping busy and making strong friendships amongst the diverse nationalities that are
represented here. Till the next time.
Neil, Thalie, Freja.

Quick report from Pez Maya!!

2012-02-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

It is almost the end of the second week in Pez Maya expedition and everybody is now an Open water diver! Congratulations!! PADI Advance course is on its way and little by little all volunteers are making progress in their science passing their first fish and coral exams! Felicidades too!!

Everybody has commited to learn and develop their monitor jobs and morning duties so the base is running smoothly. Beside the bad weather this week there are plenty activities the volunteers are involved in like a cenote diving, helping in the recycling center in Punta Allen, study, exams, science lectures and more!! Here is a taste in pictures of what they have been up to! Enjoy them!

And of course there is still time to relax! just if you have finished your chores ;)

What can we do with plastic bottles?? What about building a recycling centre!!!!

2012-01-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

We are very thrilled to see that our CT project has been very successful and has continue to develop.

After nearly two years of starting the waste separation programme in Punta Allen (fishing village south of our Pez Maya base) we are finally building the centre where we will be able to store all the plastic, glass, cardboard, metal that it is collected around town!

After getting some funding from the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) and raising some more funds with the challenge, etc., we thought it would be a good idea to give a use to all the plastic that had been collected in town. So after doing some research... voilá! We found the technique to do it and we started with this great challenge!!

It is quite a long process as we need to take the tags from the bottles and fill them up with dirt. However we are still enthusiastic as the people in town are coming to help out. We will also complement it with glass bottles.

At the moment we are working on the foundation of it. But soon we will start with the walls!!

So if you have some bottles and you don't know what to do with them, what about building something cool!!

If you want to check out the history of this recycling centre you can check out this facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Punta-Allen-Verde/159951014064826

And if you feel like you want to chip in to this great work you can do it at http://www.justgiving.com/puntaallenverde :)

Shark news!

2012-01-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

For all the people that have been following this blogyou might have noticed the banner on the right hand side about providing betterprotection to sharks, which is an initiative promoted by PADI aware. We havesigned the petition along with many people and a month ago we got some excitingnews that we would like to share with you:

“On November 22^nd, the EuropeanCommission announced the long awaited proposal for closing the loopholes in theEuropean Union’s ban on shark finning. And the European Union has become asignatory to the United Nations Convention on Migratory Species (CMS)Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for Sharks. These are important steps forward in ProjectAWARE’s work to protect threatened and vulnerable shark species. To learn moreyou can check out the full stories at:

BigDay in European Shark Conservation

SharksGiven a Fighting Chance as EU Inches Toward Closing Loopholes

European fishing fleets play a major role in shark fishing worldwide with anumber of loopholes in legislation which have long threatened sharks not justin European waters but globally too. We’ve been battling this issue for thepast few years and you’ve made your voice heard to help us get there. Thankyou!

In 2012, we’ll be pushing EU Member States to agreeto the proposal for a strong, loophole-free EU finning ban. And we’ll bepushing harder for our goal to protect vulnerable shark species from tradeunder the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) atthe next CITES meeting in Thailand in 2013. There’s much to be done between nowand then.

For now, thank you for supporting shark protectionalongside Project AWARE”

Unfortunately, in some countries shark fin soup isstill considered as a delicacy and many supermarkets have special offers for it so the battle is still going. You can contribute by not consuming sharkproducts and tell the people about the harm they do as they might not know. For an interesting blog on shark fin soupand supermarkets in Thailand please click here.
Thanks GVI Thailand for sharing it with us!

New Year and new faces!

2012-01-16T15:20:00.000-08:00

We are very excited here in Mexico as we received our first volunteers of the year. 21 new faces from 9 different countries arrived on Saturday eager to learn, experience life on the beach, no luxuries, experience dive in a biosphere reserve and spread the word on environmental conservation! They are settling in their new home and have already enjoyed the pleasures of living in a beach with their first volleyball game!

Keep an eye on this blog to follow their adventures and progression.

Thank you Punta Gruesa!

2012-01-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

As some of you know we are having a thrilling start in Mexico! We have merged our two bases and we are looking forward receiving the first volunteers of 2012 in Pez Maya!

We don't want to miss out saying thank you to Punta Gruesa and Mahahual town as our time there was fantastic! The data collected there has and will be passed to our local partners Amigos de Sian Ka'an and CONANP who will have real and up to date data of the region to help with the development and decision making of the Region. Thank you all volunteers, staff and local community that made it possible. Other organizations continue working in the area with similar focuses, but at the end all in all working towards making sure this paradisiastic place can be preserve as much as possible.

Also, a BIG THANK YOU you to the staff that stayed in December 2011 to do the moving of base. As you can imagine, the things you accumlate throughout the years is unbelievable!! It was a titanic work and in 5 days the whole base was packed in a 17 ton truck! Very impressive!

End of phase presentation Pez Maya Sept-Dec 2011

2011-12-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

End of Phase Presentations 114b

End of phase presentation Punta Gruesa Sept- Dec 2011

2011-12-27T07:09:00.000-08:00

114 GVI Punta Gruesa EOP Presentation

Pez Maya in pictures!

2011-12-21T16:11:00.000-08:00

Likewise many thanks to all the volunteers that worked so hard in Pez Maya. We hope you have had as much fun as we did and the marine conservation culture continues to be spread to make more people aware of it! We wish you all the best and hope to see you at some point here in Mexico or somewhere in the world!

Punta Gruesa last phase in pictures!

2011-12-20T15:59:00.000-08:00

To all the people in the last phase of Punta Gruesa, many thanks! Your contribution has been really important to Mexico. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we did having you here. Many thanks for your all your hard work and for making it a great last phase!! We wish you all the best back home or if you continue travelling safe trips and if you are starting the Dive master internship see you around!!

No take zones Alliance

2011-12-19T11:25:00.000-08:00

Last month our country director participated ina meeting with a new alliance that has been formed in Quintana Roo. AlianzaKanan Kay is an initiative that has as an objective to join forces between themain organizations working with the fisheries around Quintana Roo to establishan efective network of no take zones and to try to bring back the old fishingarts. The name Kanan Kay comes from the Mayan "look after the fish". The Alliance is formed by 33 diferentorganizations (government, fishing cooperatives, NGOs, national andinternational) and GVI is part of them.

The no take zones are dedicated to the naturalreproduction of the marine species with the goal of recovering the fisheriesand the marine ecosystems. They must protect critic habitats, specially thereproduction and recruitment zones. Recent studies show that when there is alack of fishing activities on these areas, the marine life can restore andeventually this zones will be the source of fish for the non protected areas. The goal is to protect 20% of the coast ofQuintana Roo for 2015, with this, the Network of not take zones will be anexample worlwide of marine resources management. The workshop was done to create a map of allthe needs and capacities amongst the members of the Alliance, to startorganizing and implementing action points.

We will keep posting news of the work that theAlianza is doing. At the moment they have achieved a lot by working with themain fishing cooperatives in the state to establish some of the no take zones,it is just starting in some places and it has been successful in some otherlike Puerto Morelos where the fishermen are already trained to monitor those notake zones to assess the health of the reef. This is something that will behappening in the rest of the no take zones.

Stary, stary night...

2011-12-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

We are at beginning of 10th week and mood around here is shiftig from happy to sad, as this is it. Anyway, before all that, let me tell you a bit more about what have we done in past few weeks. In

the past several weeks we had lots of wind which was really, really great because there were absolutely no MOSQUITOS – Hooray, yep

no mosquitos, so it was time to lie down in hammocks. The only problem is, we have only 8 hammocks and there is 25 of us, so you have to run and fight for them or come up with really good reason why those people in them should leave them.

Well, so once you lie down in the hammock and look up (we are talking in the evening), what you going to see is sky covered with stars. There are thousands and thousands of them. It is really amazing to stare up and dream – not think, dream about everything and nothing and you might find yourself just snoring off (that happens a lot). Anyway, so if you are still awake and wonder what are the names of all these stars, well I won¨t be able to help, I do not know either. Oh well….

With all that wind, comes another problem. NO DIVING. Yep, the pass is un-passable, the waves are high, boats are small, divers are scared and so on and there is the safety issue too…

So what do you do, when we do not dive? Well, staff members try really hard to get you involved in various things like swimming (not many did it), BTEC – quite interesting, get Rescue course done – that was very productive and volleyball tournament. First few days the only thing everyone wanted to do was to lie in hammock (fight), catch on some seep, read books.

After few days we got fed up so staff came up with Olympic games idea. Instead of countries competing against each other (13 countries in here), we had 3 teams – fish, coral and staff members. The categories were: spin the chair, tag of war, long jump, spider web, coconut throw. One would not guess how one can be so competitive. Especially corals versus fish, since fish was loosing big time. But as I was part of the fish team, I can say that coral cheated of tag f war. We all suffered bruises and injuries but done all that it was great fun taking us back to childhood.

But as fun has it, after 3 or 4 days of diving we were all anxious to get back to diving and so we

did. And we were welcomed by group of
dolphins and another group was lucky enough
to see the nurse shark (no photo proof).

Beginning of 10th week we are not diving again

due to wind so we are all very fed up as we

want to finish collecting all the data and we

can not and we have only 3 diving days left,

without today. Not only that we are fed up,

but the feeling of leaving the base has hit us.

We spend 10 weeks together and we got to know each other really well, even things we did not want to know. Everything comes to last… last blog, last kitchen duty, last week, last class of English in Mahahual, last dropping of laundry, last party night….. I could fill up this page with last things.

We all collected unforgettable memories and we all have made friends for life. To me this was

a huge and great experience and I have learned quite a lot about myself. If I had the chance I

would do it again all over. I would recommend this to everyone who wants to be part of something great and make a difference. If you are worried about the press release – just remember – pres tries to sell things and the info is usually over-exaggerated and overblown and spoils the experience for everyone. This area is very safe and people here are so friendly and amazing and when you walk down the road on your day off, they shout GVI or your name as you are part of their community, even if it is just for a few weeks.

GO FOR IT AND ENJOY IT
BECAUSE IT IS WELL WORTH IT

The reycling centre will be made with plastic bottles!!

2011-12-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

After receiving some funding from the government the recycling centre has finally started the construction.

During the lobster festival celebration, we had a busy day in the recycling centre. After Tropical storm Rina, a lot of the plastic was blown away (as it does not have a proper storage place), so we joined forces to tidy up the plastic and things were shifted around as the construction will start soon and we need to make space for all the building materials.

Also, 10 new containers were built to place around town as more people want to join the programme.

The construction is just starting this weekend, after a few talks the people decided to build the centre with plastic bottles!! Yes, with all the plastic and glass bottles that have been collected in town! People in town will come in groups to help the centre, and hopefully in a few weeks it will be finished!

So, if you want to be part of this great project, give us a hand, we are still raising funds for completing the money we need to finish building the recycling centre.

New rescue divers and Tulum trip in Pez Maya!

2011-12-05T09:53:00.001-08:00

Week nine at Pez Maya was mostly a calm oneat sea, which meant a lot of progress on the science side of things with thestaff and volunteers combined completely finishing off one monitoring site, andswiftly beginning a new one. Also week nine brought a new wave of rescue diversto being with volunteers Nadia, Ginny, David, Anneli, Ryan, Hannah and Amir becomingcertified Padi Rescue Divers, making the sea now a safer place to be.

When the guys were building the roof in ourbase, we had to sit and eat on the beach under some coconut trees. Now when wehave a proper roof some of us decided that it is much nicer to sit on the beachthan the actual communal areaJ Apparentlythe discussions are a lot more intresting over thereJs

As for the rest of the weekend some of thevolunteers decided to venture into Tulumfor the weekend and spent the day and a half relaxing, buying gifts and as thedarkness dawned, the salsa dancing (or attempt at salsa dancing) began.

So all in all it has been a very productiveand enjoyable week at Pez Maya, and it is scary to think that there is just oneleft to come!

Until next time, (the final time L),

ADIOS

Windy adventures & Lobster Festival show in Punta Allen!

2011-11-28T06:25:00.001-08:00

Once again I am sitting here and writing this week’s blog. For the count we are up to 8 now and soon it

is time to say goodbye to our newfound friends. I think we all hope that in our hearts this is not a final

goodbye, just a temporary solution so everyone can reload for a bit.

This week’s adventures have been windy, windy and jet again windy. In turn this created load of time

for us to prepare for a play we did this Friday. The whole event was a lobster festival which took place in a sweet little village called Punta Allen. Everything here is about the lobster fishing, which is a sustainable kind. We find that really remarkable and support it to 100%! For the children we set up this play about a lionfish who invades the home of all the other beautiful reef creatures and doesn´t want

to share a single centimeter of reef! But as of all happy stories the hero (in this case a diver) comes and saves the day The lionfish is an invasive species so that’s why it is a big subject in discussions around

here.

Although the play was for children, we think the grownups had a good time too!

The monitoring is doing just fine and we do the best we can while in the water! It is so exciting to have that feeling about really making something important and help out a bit

Cool sightings from the beach have also been made. Sharks have been seen so just the thought of taking a swim before or after sunset/sunrise is far, far away really cool though! With this some of us escaped to another beach for some relaxing. The beach in Tulum suited perfect and we made some cool backpacker/jumping pictures

Have a great one until you hear from us again! Hugs

After the mayan challenge- the long weekend!

2011-11-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

After the Mayan challenge and after 5 weeks through, you will be rewarded with a long weekend – 3
full days (hurray I hear you shouting).

So what can you do except the usual drinking marathon? (now, now – don’t say it doesn’t happen!) Our base went to Tulum. It’s about 3 and half hours from base. If you are here in the main season, you can get the ADO bus from Mahahual directly to Tulum or if you are here in low season, you get collectivo

to Limones and ADO bus to Tulum. If you have time between the two busses, go check on the Mayan ruin in Limones. You can’t miss it, it’s on the main road and it’s between two private houses. You can’t get in or climb it but still have a look instead of getting bored waiting for bus (and it’s not far, only 5 min walk from the bus stop).

When you get to Tulum, you have many options where to stay - 5 stars resort, with beautiful cabañas, costing around 100 USD a night or like us in hostel. Some of us stayed in Costa del Sol have tiny breakfast. The other half stayed in Chilam Baham with no breakfast but hot

showers, TV and Wi-Fi that didn’t work (typical). Under our hostel was internet shop Savana (very cheap) and you can sand stuff home from here via DHL or USB (very, very expensive).

You can do three things in Tulum. You can dive cenotes or see the ruins. I haven’t dive cenotes as I’m going to do it after 10 weeks here but those folks from the base who did, they came back with their faces lighten up and happy and were non-stop talking how amazing it was that you want to get up and go and do it.

There are many dive companies, so choose wisely. They’ve been using Mot Mot (next to Savana

internet shop) and they didn’t complain one bit. Next to the dive shop you can find bakery, so you

can have freshly baked croissants with freshly brewed coffee or hot chocolate there. (hm, can still

taste it).

If you want to do ruins, you have two options. There are Tulum ruins – the only Mayan ruins on beach. They are very touristy so be prepared for all of that. The other ruins you can visit are Coba ruins. They are 42 km north of Tulum and the easy way to get there is by bus (46 pesos one way). It takes about 45 minutes and the ADO buses are very comfy. Once there, we paid 51 pesos for entry (all national monuments cost same – well so far they do).

Coba ruins are separated into 3 groups. You are only allowed to climb 1 of the temples and have two

ball courts.

They lie in jungle and it’s hot so water and sunscreen are essential (had neither of those). It’s quite
amazing how the nature claims the ruins, with tree’ roots growing around them and sometimes
through them. After seeing the first group which is by the entrance, you can either hire a bike for 35 pesos or walk or be biked there by bike taxi. To next group is only about 1 km. We biked all the way to the end passing several buildings till we reached the main temple. It’s 42 m high and apparently
highest in the Northern Yucatan Peninsula. You can climb this one. Take a deep breath and GO.

If you huffing and puffing don’t worry as I was as well and I wasn’t the only one. It’s a part of the
experience (at least I think it is). Once you there, take in the view. It’s amazing, above those trees,
seeing a lake in further corner. Climbing down is hard, it’s scary, so be careful. If you forget the drink
like us, some clever person has built a shack with refreshment there, so enjoy. From there we biked
another kilometre to another group. This one is full of stelas – high stones on which Mayan wrote
messages. Some of them are well preserved and you can see images on them (not sure what they
mean though).

We finished our tour just to be told that our bus left 10 minutes earlier so for 300 pesos you can get
taxi back to Tulum, directly to your hostel (don’t take it I say – it’s a bargain).

So there you go, that’s what you can do on your days off. Also some people went to Cancun, Playa and Cozumel and even few went down to Belize to dive the Blue Hole. If you planning to do that be ready to travel a lot. Your options are open as long as you have fun.

Back on base for me it was after week, I felt like home. Missed the place, it’s like a home to us (well
at least to me – yep, bit emotional here).

Last week we’ve also taken part in beach clean, done some TEFL teaching, trying to organise a play
for local school. Small things like take makes you feel great, like you really are doing something for
the community. And that’s what we are here for.

The Mayan Wilderness Challenge- Back and alive!

2011-11-22T08:00:00.001-08:00

A few weeks before starting theChallenge I wasn't sure I would be able to finish as I haven't been in good shape for thelast years. I, however, try to train every day in order to be up to the level! I can only say the feeling of accomplishment at the end of each day wasundescribable, specially the last day when we were tired and had the windagainst us all the time!

I must say the challenge was not only the kayaking and cycling in Sian Ka’an, no!! Raising funds was also challenging but we did pretty good for our first one! Here you can see how everybody did and is still doing as we continue raising funds

http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6402&utm_source=email2.globalgiving.org&utm_medium=email&utm_term=ross%40gviworld.com&utm_content=Your%20project%20was%20added%20to%20a%20fundraiser%20%7C%20A%20GlobalGiver%20is%20helping%20you%20fundraise.&utm_campaign=Project%20Leader

http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/fundraiser/prevfund/gg.html?regid=6292&utm_source=email2.globalgiving.org&utm_medium=email&utm_term=ross%40gviworld.com&utm_content=Your%20project%20was%20added%20to%20a%20fundraiser%20|%20A%20GlobalGiver%20is%20helping%20you%20fundraise.&utm_campaign=Project%20Leader

http://www.justgiving.com/Rebecca-Fox2

http://www.justgiving.com/Lluvia-Soto

http://www.justgiving.com/jana-dlouha

http://www.justgiving.com/Simon-Brownlie

http://www.justgiving.com/Jaen-Nieto-Amat

http://www.justgiving.com/cynthia-arochi

The challenge touched us also before startingwhen we had to postpone it due to Storm Rina. Then, we had four members ill whoregardless they were determined to do it, they took proper measures andfinished it!

Another challenge before the actual onewas sleeping in a flooded tent when it rained so bad the night before that at4am we had to move out. All of it made the 30 kms cycling in a road full ofholes which mostly were lagoons, look like nothing! On the contrary it was a lotof fun! It didn’t feel like a challenge until the night when you could feel thelegs and bottom pain.

The 5 hour kayak on the second day washard but enjoyable through the Channels, The last day was the hardest with the windagainst us, it felt like you were not advancing but as happens in life you justkeet paddling and all of a sudden you have reached your goal! We even had ourown turtle release when we found a lost marine baby turtle on our way. Thefeeling of team work, and accomplishment will last forever in our hearts. At least in mine!

The glorious days of all have reached Pez Maya this week!

2011-11-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

The monitoring of coral and fish is running smoothly and we are all happy. But the most happy is the new five weekers who now all are advanced open water divers. They have been struggling with compasses, boats and deep dives with great success.

And good for all the other of us is that they have been encouraging the kitchen people to amazing food

this week. Feels great after days like these here on base.

We also had a couple of mindblasting nights with a sky as clear as…I don’t know what. We assemble

on the beach and just lie there and watching the great big black and beautiful! And what a moment to

share with newfound friends. Some of us even slept on the beach all night. The aftermath of that is that

I ¡t can be done with some wind going on. Otherwise the mosquitos will have a feast all plated up

Some amusement along the side is to watch the Mexican workers build us a new roof over communal

area. They seem happy and take veeeeery long breakes But I guess that’s the way the roll around here.

The roof itself will be stronger than ever before!

So with this I am hoping for more great weather next week! We had a good streak so a continue of that
would be yum! See ya!

Settling in back in Pez Maya and welcome to second five weekers!

2011-11-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

We settled back intobase just in time for fun dives on Saturday. A well timed treat as everyone wasa little frustrated by the hurricane that never really was. Some people stayedon base and others visited Akumal on Sunday to swim with turtles. By Mondaythings were almost back to normal, but with a more efficient roof on communal.We got lots of diving in with only Wednesdays’ weather keeping us on shore. OnThursday it was time for all the five weekers’ last dives. Some of which wereconducted in costume….others in nothing at all! A very liberating experience. Weall had a tearful farewell as the first five weeker left and decided to finishthis part of the phase in style with a Halloween fancy dress party. The staffprovided a delicious buffet, barbequed meat was greatly appreciated by those strugglingwith a vegetarian diet. And as it was a volunteers birthday we had cakefollowed by hilarious skittle vodka fuelled behaviour, some volunteers even ended up sleeping on thebeach (intentionally I should add).

Friday morning choreswere met with a fair amount of grumbles but soon enough if was off to playa forthe weekend and goodbye to the base for the five weekers. Some of us went toCozumel for night diving and others off to Puerto Morelis for a wreck dive.Almost everyone who was off base did some cenote diving on Sunday. An amazingdive experience, but for some with an 8 o’clock start, a bit of a struggleafter a night at blue parrot with free drinks and fire shows! Our youngestvolunteer has now most definitely passed his initiation and was championcarried home (consciously or unconsciously depending on who you ask) by threevolunteers. Welcome to ‘maturity’.All too soon it was time for burritos andfarewells to our lovely first five weekers. We miss them all terribly and wantto thank them for all the hilarious memories. Much love to you all and safeonwards journeys. Base won’t be the same without you. (The UN are having anemergency meeting. Apparently they are sceptical of Princess’s ability togovern Pectoria alone.)

Meanwhile, back atbase, the new five weekers have been moving into base and becoming the latestdonors in the mosquito blood drive.

Adios.

Farewell to the first fiveweekers!

2011-11-14T11:09:00.000-08:00

Suddenly you walk on this green, colourful road in the middle of nowhere. After a while you decide to look around and the minute after, when your eyes are back on the road again, you realize that its almost ended. That’s the thoughts passing around in the heads of the 5-weekers this week. Time runs fast and some of us are leaving the group for new adventures! Other than that the training are going great so far and monitoring isn’t far away! Fish, corals, algaes and other reef creatures can not hide anymore and we can id most all of them!

For the longweekend coming up most of us are planning dives. Wreckiving, cenotediving and Cozumel is planned and there is only one way to do it. Just like the first and second rule of life; have fun and look

cool.

Since we are all splitting up a big party in Playa Del Carmen will hit off, no one can walk the streets safe this weekend, that’s for sure! But yet again,it is so hard to leave a paradise like this Our own beach to live on, a wonderful world underwater to explore and amazing friends. Life is good in Pez Maya!

The mayan Challenge!! 1st report by Jana Dlouha

2011-11-09T20:19:00.000-08:00

We are on the breakthrough through our 5th week on the base and it feels like we are a big family and everybody is starting to think what next. The reason is because the time goes faster than actually we want to and all those things like duties, mosquitos, and hurricanes are just a normal thing. We became really good friends (some for life) and even though we still have our differences, we just get on.

This week was different for me and other 3 volunteers from our base – we left to participate in

Mayan challenge. It’s a first time that GVI Mexico did it to support a recycling facility storage in Punta Allen. So the original plan (yep, there was a change) was to kayak for 2 days and on our last day to bike. But as it has it, it was change due to rain (feel like back in UK) and we started to bike.

Let me start from beginning though. We left base, being driven to Tulum, where we met with Lluvia and Cynthia and Ecocolors tours company who brought us to the other base – Pez Maya and let me tell you from what I’ve heard, I still prefer the Punta Gruesa. I guess it’s our home and though they have other things there, we have ours. So we spend the night there, welcomed by the others, had and awesome dinner (they had mushrooms, sooo jealous), we had the introduction and went sleep. What else is to do, when it’s raining!!!!! The next morning we got up at 6 (well at least some did), since it was raining the volunteers had a lie in (good for) so we had time to relax in rain.

Must say the sea was amazing to walk along to. Saw few pelicans, fishermen but no sharks. (There is always next time). We got our bikes ready, put our shoes on (quite strange after not wearing shoes for 5 weeks) and we set off, to be immediately faced with huge puddle. So at the beginning everybody avoided them, but by the end, we just didn’t care and went in the middle where the water was up to your knees and if you stopped biking, you just fell off (and yes, it did happened).

So we managed to bike 35km in 5 hours and it felt good (before you say its lot), don’t forget it was

full of huge puddles, you could actually swim in. It was great. We met two companies that had 15

jeeps each and guess what???? We have been overtaking them, as they have been breaking down

in all those puddles. On the end we met them by Paso Lagarto (crocodile pass) where we had a little

chat about broken road (thanks to jeeps and tourist). Well after short break full of refreshment we

continued to Punta Allen. It was tight fight. Simon first, followed by Rosie, then me, Bridget and

somewhere in the back was the rest of the group (not that far =) though). On our way we saw turkey vultures, white egrets, butterflies but no crocks though.

As we were coming closer to Punta Allen, you could see we are coming closer the civilisation as lots of plastic bottles were all over the place. And that is why we were doing this challenge, to help them at least in small way to raise money for this recycling centre. This place is all the way out here and it can get really difficult, especially in rainy season to collect the bottles to take them to Tulum to be squashed and distributed.

We also met a very nice lady here in Punta Allen, she comes from USA and she bought a place
here and has lodges on beach and she let us stay for the night. The lodge comes with shower and on
that day it was so appreciated and we all enjoyed it pretty much. Well the tour guide – Eduardo cooked for us a yummy fish and afterwards we just chilled before turning to bed as we had early wake up call to go kayaking.

The following day after yummy breakfast we put our bikes on van and took kayaks down. Put lots of

sunscreen, hats, gloves (they were very useful), got water, life jackets and with one paddle in hand and with other holding the kayak we set off. We had 20 km ahead of us. We started on the open sea. That was challenge on its own as the kayaks are not made for it. We also had to learn to synchronise our movements, which was great fun. We had few teams. Rosie and Simon were the Aussie team, we had Cynthia and Lluvia on Mexican team, we had Becks and Jean on English/French team (yep in worked), we had Marcus and Karen on American/Mexican team and there was me and Eduardo on Czech/Mexican team. It was quite hard going and some were really competitive (not naming), so we started quite slow and easy, from sea to mangroves and to lagoon that was extremely wavy and that was our last bit. Everybody could feel it and they decided to put last energy into it. So this is the finale. Czech/Mexican team first, Aussie team second, American/Mexican team third, Mexican team forth and English/French fifth. It was great!

We put our kayaks up the van, had lunch (yummy sandwiches) you wouldn’t believe what you can use peanut butter for and then we went off to our camping area – Paso Lagarto, where we put our tents up. We were told we might be eaten by crocks, but we weren’t that lucky. Well, I won’t know, I slept like a baby and in the morning everybody was accounted for.

The next day after packing our tents, cooking breakfast we put our kayaks back in the water for our last day (shame). Everybody at this stage felt the muscles, but still had a huge smile on our faces. We had around 20km ahead of us and this time it would be much harder as we were facing current and north wind. But as challenge go we went for it. On the way we saw amazing range of birds but no crocks around us. (not sure we would have time to watch) We crossed three lagoons, two water channels and we finally (5 hours later) got to our destination. After loading up everything and everyone we headed for Tulum, dropping off Kayaks on the way. Back in civilisation we had amazing lunch and now we are in hostel, chilling, watching Spider man and waiting for rest of our base to come here for the long weekend.

If you coming to the base in time of challenge, make sure you definitely sign up for it, because it’s

well worth it and you will have time of your life. Not only you will be satisfied of what you achieved, you also helping the local community AND you meet amazing people on the way.

Preparing for the storm that luckily never came!!!

2011-11-08T12:17:00.000-08:00

It’s Tuesday morning and we wake up to astormy sea. It doesn’t look so good for diving and we are all waitingexpectantly for good news, that isn’t coming. Staff wants to go to check up thepass for diving but as our luck have it, our boat engine doesn’t want to work.

Well, it gives us an opportunity to catchup on our EFR knowledge (Emergency First Response – just if you’ve been asking),which is actually great news. We engaged in role play acting both sides ofdoctors and nurses, we were bandaging our arms and legs and measuring ourpulses and all other stuff. We just behave like teenagers and pretending like wenever did it before =). Well the day went by quite quickly. The engine is onits way to Playa to be fixed and we are just told that a tiny storm (laterhurricane) Rina is on the way.

We have mixed feelings, there is lots oftalking and even more questions. What do you imagine under the world hurricane?My first images are those from news, the after storm photos, lots of tragedy.That’s news for you. But actually here everything seems under control and theprocess of preparation went in orderly fashion.

In 2007 Mahahual was wiped out clean by hurricaneDean. You can still see the aftermath of it, but people don’t wait here, oncontrary they all put their hands together and work on rebuilding and bringingthe economy back. These people lost all their belongings, parts of who theywere and yet they manage to be these happy people who are sharing all theyhave. Always have a time for short chat and laugh, and let me tell you, they dolove to laugh.

So GVI have decided to take precautions andevacuate us to Casitas a little suburb to Mahahual – but it is actually part ofit, just on the other side of the main road. Casitas have a big port, where thecruise ships arrive. It’s been only open in 2009 and gives job opportunities topeople and for us to be (even if in a small way) part of the community by helping teaching themEnglish.

But on that day,what did it meant for us? Well of course the upgrade to hotel with hot water(at times), eating meat earlier than Friday and internet connection and beingamongst the civilisation. But before that we had to pack Punta Gruesa. Wecalled it a preparation for the 10^th week, as that’s what we will bedoing on the end of our stay on base. So we pulled the boats out (quite heavy)laughing. We packed all our belongings and put them away, so the huts wereclean again (not for long). We put all the chairs and tables and whatever couldfloat or fly into the bathrooms (tough for those who wanted to go), had a yummylunch, checked that everyone is ready to go and everything is secured. It feltgood to be working as one big team, everybody pulling their weight. Nobodypanicked for one moment and it was great experience.

We spend in Casitas one night, met fewlocals on the way, had a chat with them and the next afternoon we packed ourbags and happily (well, at least some) arrived back on base where we werewelcomed by hungry mosquitos. We put our bags down and start unpacking again.And within couple of hours we had our mosquitos nets up again, our beds weremade, based looked busy again and then it was time for dinner.

It’s good to be back. I’m glad that theHuricane Rina didn’t cause as much damage in rest of the country and it’s goodto know that everybody is safe.

Diving, pez maya olympic games, Rina experience in Pez Maya

2011-11-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

Theweek`s fantastic weather saw a full six days of diving and also all thevolunteers completing their advanced open water certification. As thecelebrations ensued, we continued on with working on our coral and fishspotting in hopes to begin our monitoring duties soon. The sunlight and fairlycalm seas were a gift after a rough and rainy past week. We took full advantageof their presence and were all happy to have logged nearly 10 dives in oneweek. After Saturday’s fun dive was over, volunteers and staff scattered withsome venturing to the ruins at Coba spending the day biking and climbing thestructures, while others wandered to Akumal to snorkel with the residentturtles and spend the day relaxing in the sun.

Thenbefore we knew it it was Monday again and we were back in the water, but onlyfor a brief moment. We heard news of Hurricane Rina who was due a visit at Basethat Thursday which sadly meant non-diving weather, however perfect conditionsfor the Pez Maya Olympic Games. All huts put in creativity and effort but staffcame out victorious.

On Wednesday it became official that we would evacuatebase for the arrival of Rina so we packed every last bit of base up and headedfor Tulum where we spent two nights playing cards by candlelight and eating asmuch hurricane food as possible. Thankfully Rina came and went in our sleep andwe were able to return to base by Friday afternoon where damage was minimal.

Weare happy to be back and hope that the weather continues to improve for manydiving days ahead.

Adios.

Settling into routines, Turtle festival and farewell to Erin!

2011-11-06T11:52:00.000-08:00

Anotherweek has passed us by at Punta Gruesa, and it seems the weeks are passingfaster and faster. We have all settled into our routines now, with each of usgetting in six or seven dives per week. Duties have sped up in the mornings,and as a result we have been rewarded with a trial period of 15 minutes bonussleep in the mornings, with duties now beginning at half past six. We are allgetting a good handle on our fish and coral IDs, and it looks like we willbegin monitoring on the reef next week.

Full moonrising over the sea as Mischa and Niels look on.

This lastweekend proved to be an interesting break from base, with a welcome distractionin the form of the Tortuga (Turtle) festivalin Tulum. Ten volunteers and one staff member made it to Tulum for the weekend,with great expectations of turtle games, turtle themed food and children toentertain. The first day fulfilled all expectations for those who went, howeverby the time the rest of us got there the rain had caused the remainder of thethree day festival to be cancelled. We made the best of the situation byvisiting some local shops in the torrential rain and crossing the streets thathad turned to rivers. We danced a few hours away to an ecclectic assortment ofmusic from 50s and 60s rock to salsa and modern hits at a lovely little Mexicanbar. Amazingly, we all made it back onto the same bus the next day ready forthe 4 hour trip back to base.

Whilst therain of the last few days has been a nice respite from the heat, and allowed usall to get bonus showers, we have also been blessed with a new onslaught ofmosquitoes surely numbering in their billions. Repellants and remedies arestill being trialled.

Torrentialrain continues throughout the weekend.

This weekis also sadly the last week for Erin, our brilliant Kiwi staff member who isgoing to be sorely missed. She is a wealth of information, always has a smileto offer and is truly respected by staff and volunteers alike. Her year at PuntaGruesa is coming to an end and she will be off to explore new opportunities. Weare all looking forward to her going away party this weekend, however next weekthe base will seem empty without her. Thanks for everything and all the best Erin!

The Mayan Wilderness challenge has started!!

2011-10-31T11:28:00.000-07:00

We have a say in Mexico "después de la tormenta viene la calma" something like calm comes after the storm. After Rina which became a storm last week we postponed the challenge for this week and even though it is still a bit rainy the 8 challengers are up to it and will enter Sian ka'an biosphere reserve today in order to spend the night in Pez maya. We will start early tomorrow morning and hopefully will get to see many cool creatures in our way! 22 kms kayaking until Punta Lagartos, then 22 kilometers more to Punta allen where we will camp and visit the recycling center we are raising funds to and then come back cycling 55kms to Tulum passing though Pez Maya again, a protected land belonging to Amigos de Sian Ka'an to who we are also raising funds!

Wish us good luck and if you want and can do the fund raising is still on and open!!

Getting into boat and incidental sightings

2011-10-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

This week I was thinking what I could write about. Nobody seems to every mention how really hard it is

getting into boat. I know it seems straight forward, but not from my side of view. So listen up, here it goes. After finishing with our duties and if the weather is good to us, there are 4 waves of people going for diving on two boats. Each boat usually has 6 divers and driver. So far so
good.

Boats are amazing. They are biggish, white, they have a name written on them, and there is a safety box, engine…..where am I going with this? Well it does miss a one IMPORTANT thing (from
my point) and that’s lather? I’m sure you all agree. So when we push the boat at the beginning of

dive towards the sea we are walking in the water next to it. It’s great, water is warm, sea grass is crunching underneath your feet (not that I can hear it). And then the moment arrives….we actually have to jump into to boat. Well it sounds all so great and easy but when you are up to shoulders in water it’s not as easy as it sounds. So how can I describe it bit mo re? Imagine a beach whale, yep, my favourite animal. Because like me, she doesn’t like to do sudden movements, it takes time and eventually things happen. Well here you have to be fast before the boat moves and you have to start all over again. So this is the deal, they let me try at least 3 times; before they actually help me (otherwise we would be diving on the beach).

So I’m on the boat and we are off. And I have a problem (again), I’m sea sick (if you planning to come here and you suffer as I do, a word of advice, take lots and lots of pills with you). So we get to the place and have to kit up. It’s quite hard when there are waves and guesses what – I still feel sick.

Yay. So off we jump on count 3 into water. Actually we roll off. And we are down and under. Ahhh,
the bliss, with so many colours and so many things to see 40 minutes pass unbelievable fast. We un-kit in the water, leaving just mask and fins on. Are you guessing what is coming next? Yes, you scored. Now it’s time, when we have to jump back into boat as elegantly and lady like as possible. I will disappoint you here (again). I need help and they let me jump few times on my own, for them to see, that I still can’t do it and then they help me. So I land in the boat head first, feet up, kicking
anything and anybody on the way but so happy to be in the boat (that’s a different way to see the
boat closely and personal).

So what are the incidental sightings? Those are sightings which you actually looking forward to (at
least I do). It ranges from rays, morays, dolphins, turtles, even lion fish – which is actually here in
wrong, but they are just so beautiful. You don’t want to know what happens to them here…….

Update hurricane Rina is now a tropical storm

2011-10-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

Latest news on Hurricane Rina are that it has become a tropical storm, it is now Tropical storm Rina, still heading towards the North-East of Quintana Roo. All volunteers and staff continue safe in the hotels in Tulum and Mahahual. More updates to come as we know more.

Hurricane Rina heading Quintana Roo

2011-10-26T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hola!
Just an update on Hurricane Rina which is heading our way. We have been closely following the official national and international news and indications since the beginning. Quintana Roo state has a very high hurricane culture and is well prepare when hurricanes hit. Rina is likely hit the North of the state tomorrow Thursday. However, anything can happen as it is moving slowly. At the moment it is cathegory 2. The volunteers and staff from both Marine conservation bases have been evacuated for safety reasons and the interns in the dive shops are following their owen safety protocols too. Punta Gruesa volunteers are staying in a hotel in Mahahual and volunteers from Pez Maya will be staying in two hotels in Tulum. They all have enough water, food and communication channels.

We will give you another update as soon as we can.

Advanced open water started, exciting sighting and lion fish disection!

2011-10-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

Well this week didn’t get off to a great start. Turtle festival was sadly mostly rained off, however they powered through the opening ceremony and a few of our volunteers spent the evening playing conservation games with local children. The terrible weather meant no diving for four and a half days and everyone’s feet getting soggy and sore. After numerous films and a solid four hour stretch of playing president, the cabin fever finally got too much so a swift escape to Playa Del Carmen for a debaucherous weekend was had by most. One number amongst us got a little too excited but, even so, a wonderful weekend back in ‘civilisation’ was had by all who attended. Those who stayed behind got to enjoy a calm and relaxing time on base without some of the more hyperactive members of our team.

Luckily Monday brought with it diving weather and we haven’t stopped since! Two dives a day have started, exhausting but so worth it. Advanced Open Water (AOW) has begun (to be finished hopefully today J) with us all becoming neutrally buoyant pros. Matrix fighting and underwater racing has definitely helped. Today we did

out deep dives down to 30m, the last task in completing AOW. As if the prospect of Nitrogen narcosis wasn’t going to make the dives interesting enough, two of our more self confident staff members decided to conduct the dive in mankinis. A sight first thing in the morning that I think many of us look forward to never seeing again. As for more enjoyable sightings this week we have seen several kinds of turtles, a tropical ray, southern sting rays, a spotted eagle ray (!), a nurse shark, moray eel and some massive crabs and lobsters. We were also fortunate enough to have a lion fish caught and brought back to base. We dissected it which was a real education, analyzed its stomach contents and then all got to try a bit as it was cooked up with lime and chilli. Most people are on base this weekend so its party time once more…..lets just hope the mankinis stay packed away.

First impressions in Pez maya base too!

2011-10-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

This week started with us all arriving to base very excited and eager to get in the water, But sadly due to elaborate storms, many attempts have been blighted and tanks have had to go back still full. Not that this has stopped the fun! One of the first jobs when arriving on base was to put up mosquito nets. Not a task for the faint hearted, I, amongst many others spent the best part of half an hour fighting and ending up cocooned in netting until the scholars stepped in to share their wisdom. For those doing their open water, PADI trips off base to a pool have

been a wonderful chance to see a bit of Tulum, try

me local food and bring back well deserved chocolate orientated treats for everyone else studying hard at base. We’ve been getting to grips with duties and the skills we will need to keep base running smoothly (including the very essential machete training in order to open coconuts!). All the theory parts for our PADI’s are done and almost everyone has passed their fish and coral test. So now after, what for most, has been months of planning the idea that we will soon be independently conducting underwater research, is becoming more real and even more exciting.

Today, thankfully, the rain decided to stay away. For many it was a chance to get their first experience of diving in the ocean and seeing a coral reef outside of a book. Almost a full rotation of kitchen duties down, and luckily the food is still good (…despite a few bean stones….). Everyone is getting more comfortable with each other and a few of the boys have already picked up very macho nick names, including Fru-Fru and Princess. This weekend we look forward to a belly dancing competition, hopefully in full costume, between two of our more competitive male members. Let the trash talk commence!

2011-10-20T08:12:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of the first weekend off on base, I look around and see how effective some time off is at breaking down social barriers. What was one week ago a group of strangers from 13 different countries, of varying ages, backgrounds and experience levels, is rapidly becoming a close-knit bunch, united in our love of diving, passion for marine conservation and hatred of biting insects. Many psychologists dream of a social experiment with these ingredients. Completely isolated from the world for 5-6 days a week, showering every 4 days, cooking for each other and sleeping in close quarters... tolerance and a sense of humor become survival skills. After only one week, I am looking forward to see where we stand after two, three and eventually ten weeks. For many in the group, this is their first long diving adventure, and for some their first time in such rugged conditions. Knowing this, I'm incredibly impressed to see the positive attitudes shown by everyone. We are truly lucky to have such an awesome bunch of people in this phase.

Diving is wonderful here in Mexico. Whilst we are not diving in a protected area (we are collecting data

to compare with the surrounding protected zones) fish life is abundant, and the water is a balmy 31

degrees (Celsius) so a bikini is ample exposure protection. After a few days of heavy rain, we have also

been blessed with beautiful weather. Stunning sunrises begin our days as we go about our morning

duties, cool breezes relieve the heat and insects, and the moon is getting fuller every day, making the

evening ocean glisten.

We are all beginning to adjust to life on base. Time management is becoming tighter, with today being

our first four-dive day. We all wake up just before 6am, and most of us are ready for bed by 9pm. Our

bellies are starting to adjust to smaller portions of vegetarian food , and with bucket flush toilets this is a

wonderful thing. However the line for seconds at every meal is rapid, large and enthusiastic as each duty

group competes to produce interesting, nutritious and elaborate food with our basic ingredients.

Words like "caudal peduncle", "muchos gracias", "Dendrogyra cylindrus", and "slippery dick" become

normal, as our collective brains process fish morphology, Spanish, coral genera and species, and

common names for reef fish. Questions such as "I am an emergency first responder may I help you?"

and "what shall I do with these bad boys darling?" become normal as we learn first aid and English

West-country slang. The sounds of slapping, yelping puppies and squeals from the landlord's daughter

punctuate our days, and all of it serves to make for an enjoyable, challenging and overall satisfying start

to what will be a brilliant 10 weeks in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Cheers!

Rosie.

1st impressions in Punta Gruesa marine conservation base!

2011-10-18T08:03:00.000-07:00

Here we are, we have finally arrived on our first day of 10 weeks from Playa to our new

home – Punta Gruesa base.

We are all very tired, jet lagged and emotional, but we have made it. We like what we see. (At least I do).

And then it all begins. We put our bags into huts, we are learning the rules of the base, health and safety rules and duties. Somehow it’s a bit overwhelming but we’re getting there. I mean, it’s been only few hours but hey, it has to be done and over with. View on the beach is great, staffs are cooking delicious lunch and dinner and we feel like on holidays. (So far, so good)

Well it all ends with after dinner announcements. We have a day to get acclimatised and on Sunday is our turn to do all those duties staff been doing up till now. And we have to be up at 6am!!!! Yes you heard right (well-read right), 6am.

There are four kinds of duties: kitchen, communal, ground and boat duty.

I’ll start with kitchen as food is number one on everybody’s list, and we are a hungry lot.

So group of volunteers gathers in the kitchen to cook – that’s not bad. We have to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner (for English natives it’s breakfast, dinner and tea). You have to (from very limited resources) prepared a very delicious meal. Well, I can tell you one thing – from day 1 everybody is competing for the best meal, making breads, chutneys, sauces of all kinds and so far the food is just amazing, though sometimes there is not enough. Yummy, scrummy for our tummy.

Right, communal duty – as the name suggest, it’s all about togetherness. And that also includes toilets and cleaning the Palapa. It has to be said, it is the easiest and one of the fastest duties on base.

Ground duty is raking the sand and looking for sand flies. And there are many of those and if you could see everybody’s legs, you would be laughing your head off. We all looking like a polka dot material or new type of coneys – one of the fish you have to learn here. It’s not bad duty at all; you are out there breathing a fresh air, having fun until you are swept by torrential rain. No surprise here, we are in hurricane season. The only things you can see are 45 degrees banded trees, lots and lots of water and nothing else. If you fast enough, you can use it as shower, which is more than welcome here and not to say, it is also a great fun.

And last duty is a boat duty. As the name suggest it’s all about boats. Yep. We get two boats to get ready. Their names are: Kalam – ha, Hu’ulkin.

Boys like this duty especially and it’s quite great as you get to learn more about boats. What’s go into safety box (which is always good to know), what are the boat sides called (still have problem with that) and learn knots. Quite important if you don’t want to swim to get the boat (and no, it didn’t happened – yet).

Well those are all duties on base and its great fun to be part of them. As an individual you learn more about yourself and your likes and dislikes and for the most important part you become a part of a great team. And I think being here and being part of team or part of something, is what this is about.

First two weeks in Pez Maya!

2011-10-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

As week two at Pez Maya quickly comes to an end, the volunteers are finally settling in and beginning
to become accustomed to the nightly blood donation to the mosquito population at Pez Maya. Last week

ended with Friday night´s post dinner conversations being interrupted by Sarah announcing that a turtle
nest was hatching, so down everyone went to the beach and we all saw something quite amazing: newly
hatched baby turtles struggling out of the nest and then making their rapid descent into the ocean. The
volunteers split into groups all cheering and naming the turtles as they climbed, stumbled and rolled over
and through various obstacles on their way and then waving them off into the sea. It was truly awesome.

Saturday started with beach clean number two and after the morning dives and the second boat push of
the day, the weekend began, which also sadly meant saying goodbye to GVIs Regional Coordinator Katie,
who had been staying with us at base this week. It was also one of the volunteer`s birthdays, so as soon
as our first meat dinner of the phase was over, the party began. Not before the belly dance-off between
Princess (a boy) and Frank of course: a special birthday treat for David. Sunday was nice and relaxing
as some ventured into Tulum, returning armed with cans upon cans of mosquito killer, and others just
spent the day relaxing on base. The weekend concluded with a movie night and before we knew it, it was
Monday again and we were back in the water.

This week diving wise saw all the volunteers successfully completing our PADI open water diving
training. As for incidental sightings, there were a few, with groups seeing turtles, a dolphin, a couple of
sharks (!) and a great barracuda which was just chilling behind my dive group on Tuesday as we were
practicing some compass skills on the ocean floor. It was a great week; but what of the weekend to come?
It is the annual turtle festival in Akumal, which celebrates the ending of the turtle mating and laying
season.

Will tell all next blog post.

Adios.

First week in Punta Gruesa!

2011-10-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

Waking up everyday around 6:00am is hard for some people but when seeing the sunrise its worth
getting up for our duties. Each morning we rotate around the four duties (Boat, kitchen, toilet cleaning
and grounds). After each duty has finished we all eat breakfast.

After breakfast we all go out, on different 'waves', to go diving. On the way back to base, after my first
dive in Mexico, we saw three dolphins jumping out of the sea, Scotty our boat driver told us to put our
mask n fins on to experience them in the wild. “awesome”.

This has been the first big trip I have done with leaving my family and doing something I feel so
passionate. I have done everything by myself. The past week has been a big eye opener for me when
first arriving, I was thinking how am I suppose to live like this for ten weeks, I share my hut with 4
other people. Rosie, Caroline, Michael and Neil’s. It does get quite hot a night without a breeze.

Everybody who is on the project are really nice, outgoing people. The past couple of day has been hard
for some people including myself we have been quite poorly. The mosquito and sand fly’s have been
biting so much that everybody has bites all over there body we have tried many things to keep them at
bay but none have been working, I have been using 97% deet. :(

Every Friday afternoon and Saturdays we have off to do anything we like “most of the time is spent
talking with family”

The base is a beautiful place just shame about all the bugs. Hopefully by another week or two
everybody should better have gotten use to the biting bugs.

Thanks

Bexs

Turtle sculpture made out of glass bottles!

2011-10-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the GVI office staff in Playa del Carmen participated in the creation of a big turtle sculpture made out of glass bottles that will be presented during the 9th turtle festival in Tulum! The sculpture will have 2,500 glass bottles and will represent a marine turtle and the four elements of life. As you can imagine it is not an easy job, hence a lot of hands were and are needed. Different volunteers showed up throughout the weekend and GVI couldn't miss this great opportunity!! It is such a great project and it was so much fun to be part of it!

Here are all the glass bottles that were collected:

And this is how it looked on Saturday!

Keep reading this blog in the next weeks to see the final product!!!

Adam Hoxley diary extract April-June 2011

2011-10-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

A brief diary extract from a former intern in Punta Gruesa base who recently finished his Dive Master Internship. Congratulations Adam and Eugene!!!
Adam Hoxey diary extract April - June 2011

The ugly journey of our trash by Project Aware

2011-10-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

Among all the activities the volunteers do on base they will do weekly beach clean ups where they will be gathering data on the type and the quatity of debris they encounter on the beach. A very simple but important project that will help our local partners Amigos de Sian Ka'an as well as Ocean conservancy to build a clearer picture of the trash dynamics that threatens ocean life.

Click here to read an interesting article about the ugly journey of our trash by Project Aware.

Interview with Heather Williams volunteer in Mahahual April-June 2011

2011-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Case Study Heather Williams IGB134-EGB067 April-June 2011

Second five weeks in Punta Gruesa video

2011-09-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

Here we share a video from the just finished phase in Punta Gruesa, Mahahual created by Fernando Cobos, volunteer and participant of the National Scholarship Program in Mexico. Hope you enjoy it and that it brings back good memories! Watch the video here

Dive Master internships!

2011-09-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

Last friday saw the end of another generation of brand new Dive masters who spent 6 months in Mexico. These dive masters are not like any other dive master as they first have spent 10 weeks learning about marine ecosystems, fish and coral identification as well as the Mesoamerican Barrier reef System synoptic program methodology in Punta Gruesa base in Mahahual! While doing it they improved their diving skilss and learnt to live in a basic way of living while making friends and experience life outside a city! Afterwards, they returned to the "city" life spending 12 weeks in a dive shop where they learnt all about diving industry and got a high quality dive master training! Not bad isn't it? Some people have returned home, some others are testing luck around and some others are returning to GVI base life! Basic but fantastic life!!

Good luck to all of you and hope to see you around!

Now another generation of 6 dive masters are changing base life to a full inmersion on the dive industry in Xcalak, Cozumel and Mahahual. Expect more news on how they do here!

6th GVI Mexico staff workshop!

2011-09-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

The 6th GVI Mexico workshop took place last week. The team consisted of Punta Gruesa, Pez Maya and Playa del Carmen staff. We travelled to Cancun, to pay a visit to our partners Amigos de Sian Ka’an, then back to the hyperbaric chamber in Playa del Carmen for an afternoon of health and safety... unfortunately not actually “in” the chamber..suggestions of a dry dive H + S workshop were dismissed! That evening we all ate a well deserved feast of 7kg of meat (not each.. although some did make a damn good effort.. errrm Bryan and Jim!), tortillas, guacamole and the like... yum! It was back to beautiful Pez Maya the following day to continue with the health and safety and volunteer management courses and also to discuss the forthcoming 2012 changes.

We did have a visit from Lois and Carlos (Amigos de Sian Ka’an) to teach us the new exciting methodologies for beach clean and photo transect monitoring. We also welcomed Dr Renata and Dr. Caroline from the hyperbaric chamber, who talked to us about common dive-related problems and how to take care of our ears :) They also shared with us a recent shocking emergency they had attended to...with a devastating outcome...which definitely touched us all.

We tried out the new beach clean method that evening, against an amazing backdrop of the setting sun. On the last day of the workshop, which was also Mexican Independe

nce Day, we took part in a “surprise activity” arranged by Cynthia and Lluvia... this consisted of donning lifejackets (some chose to simply lie on it, whereas most opted for the “nappy” method of wearing it..very trendy) and floating with the current through a narrow winding river in the mangroves.

It was thoroughly enjoyed by all.. even Rhu “I’m not getting in the water there are crocodiles in there” Le Mage. That evening we held a BBQ and fancy dress competition in aid of Mexican Independence; Zorro, a Mexican flag, Frida Kahlo and El Sunburnto the wrestler all attended, and we watched “El Grito de la Independencia” or “the Cry of Independence” that takes place every year. It was a great close to the workshop...¡Viva Mexico!

Turtle Festival coming soon!

2011-09-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Every year as you know we take part in the Oganizative comittee for the Marine turtle festival. This year it will happen from the 13th to the 16th October, here is a spot of what it is! Enjoy it and hope to see you here!

Moving planet video created by Pez Maya volunteers and staff

2011-09-21T12:05:00.000-07:00

This video created by GVI pez maya volunteers and staff shows the different ways that one can reduce one's footprint in the planet.

Punta Gruesa in pictures! June- September 2011

2011-09-20T09:35:00.000-07:00

And here they are the so awaited photos from Punta Gruesa base in Mexico!

End of phase presentation Punta Gruesa June-September 2011

2011-09-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

And here it is! Punta Gruesa end of phase presentation. Many thanks again for all your hard work and enthusiasm which made it what it was! Your contribution taking all the data is a great help for our local partners. Remember that whenever you pass again by Mexico you are always welcome to visit us! Hasta luego!

End of phase presentation Punta Gruesa June-September 2011

Amigos de Sian Ka'an in Iniciativa Mexico. Vote for them this Sunday!

2011-09-17T08:40:00.002-07:00

We are very proud to announce and congratulate our GVI local partners in Mexico, Amigos de Sian Ka'an, for making to the finals to the National contest called Iniciativa Mexico. It is a yearly contest like The Academy, America's got talent, American top model, etc but in this case it is a much more meaningful cause in which NGOs from all over Mexico compete for the best social project. Every week the organizations get a challenge and the public will vote. The organizations with less votes get out of the competition until there is only one winner. There were more than a 57,000 projects competing and now only 26 continue in the competence. Amigos de Sian ka'an is still on and going! We invite you to vote for them this Sunday at 10:30pm, so they can continue in the competiting and win! You can vote here or directly at http://www.iniciativamexico.org/proyectos/fase_1/Conservando_el_Oro_Azul

Amigos de Sian Ka'an contesting project aims to preserve the underwater rivers as a core source of benefits for the mayan communities and impact in the ongoing touristic development in Quintana Roo which also affects the second largest Coral reef barrier in the World.

Amigos de Sian Ka’an beneficia a todos los habitantes de Quintana Roo y de México con el proyecto Amigos del Oro Azul, el cual ha sido seleccionada entre casi 57 mil propuestas de todo el país, como uno de los 26 más innovadores, sustentables y con mayor impacto social para el país por Iniciativa Mexico 2011.
Amigos del Oro Azul tiene al agua dulce como el elemento integrador para conservar las selvas más extensas de México, los humedales y el segundo arrecife de coral más grande del mundo. Conservar los ríos subterráneos más largos del planeta, únicos en México y fuente del Oro Azul, es indispensable para la salud de las comunidades mayas, de la creciente población de Quintana Roo y del desarrollo económico del destino turístico más importante de Latinoamérica, el Caribe Mexicano.
Amigos de Sian Ka’an te invita a votar por la iniciativa Amigos del Oro Azul, este a las 10.30 pm en los canales de Televisa y TV Azteca así como en la página http://www.iniciativamexico.org/proyectos/fase_1/Conservando_el_Oro_Azul.

Pez Maya in pictures! June-September 2011

2011-09-12T13:12:00.001-07:00
Remembering old times... A great phase indeed, thanks again for your contribution to the expedition that made it what it was. We wish you all safe trips back and remember that you are always welcome back in Mexico!

Finishing the first part of the DM Internship in Mexico's Marine expedition

2011-09-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

As the last few days dwindle down base is strangely coming alive once again except this time with projects that are mandatory in order to leave the base in an ideal conditional for the next phase of volunteers. As an intern I am excited for the next phase of the internship where I will be working at a dive shop working towards my dive master certification. Leaving base has a surreal feeling to it; at first it was somewhere new and strange but as time went by it became our home. I know there will be certain nostalgia when leaving, but living on base has given me experiences I would be unable to achieve elsewhere. For example living and working together with twenty some odd volunteers is stressful but yet rewarding at the same time.

The learning experience at Punta Gruesa has been incredible. I have learned a lot about myself and even more importantly about the mission this particular project has undertake. Learning about a disappearing ecosystem is interesting but trying to preserve it is even more rewarding. I have learned so much information about the interaction between ecosystems found on coastal regions; the relationship between mangroves, lagoons, and eventually the reef all are a complex web of life that must be protected in order to safe many species of fish and coral. I hope through these experiences and knowledge I will be able to spread the word about what is happening in the ocean. It will be sad to say goodbye to so many but simultaneously I’m excited more than anything to get to my placement and begin a new adventure.

Nathan

End of phase presentation Pez Maya June- September 2011

2011-09-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Today we finish the third phase of this year. Great weather, lots of diving, monitoring, incidental sightings and a couple of artistic presentations marked an amazing time here in Pez Maya! Many thanks to all staff and volunteers that made it possible. Hasta la vista!!

End of Phase Presentation Pez Maya June- September 2011

Week 9 in Pez Maya! Storms, turtling, and preparing a coral reef show!

2011-09-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

By Bex and Foxy

A frustrating week in camp this week saw us miss several dives due to the adverse weather conditions… not so bad that we couldn’t still make the most of the outdoors, but bad enough that the swell often reflected scenes from The Perfect Storm. The weather did, however, provide an interesting sight that very few will have had the privilege to see before – a massive water spout stretching from the sea to the cloud, fortunately it was over the sea about 400 meters away, we could safely sit and watch it from base. Another one for the amazing weather sightings this week was a fully arcing rainbow, viewed from the boat on my way to a dive site.

It coincidentally appeared to be ending over the top of base, I quickly grabbed the radio and alerted volunteers that a pot of gold was almost definitely somewhere on base! It also permitted several volunteers to shower from the run off rain in the communal area – one in particular making the very most of it, having a total of three showers in one day! Cleanest he’s been in… well 4 weeks! During that same weather system the ‘roof’ (tarpaulin structure) of the communal area caved in… oops; and many people were sleeping in pools of water where they had forgotten to close their tarpaulin blinds… double oops!

However, the weather could not dampen (pun intended) our spirits, as a new terrestrial project has been introduced – Turtling! To explain that a little more, Xcacel (or something like that), a local turtle camp invited the volunteers from GVI to participate in their turtle conservation project. This involved staying up throughout the course of the night and observing the turtles´ behaviour. Each nesting turtle was measured in size, and the tag number recorded, and the number of eggs laid counted. Amazingly each turtle produces on average 110 eggs in one nesting session.

These eggs were then moved from the nesting site to the base camp at Xcacel, where they were protected from predation, and incubated until hatching. Other volunteers were tasked with releasing the hatched baby turtles, unsurprisingly ALL the female volunteers wanted to do this for the cutsie factor, and having seen photographs I can see why… little jealous! My particular experience of turtling was the very same night the horrendous storm hit base… travelling to the camp was a little like scenes from Jurassic Park, as the roads were very muddy, and lighting flashed far too often for my liking… I was with 5 girls
, so I had to (pretend) to be brave – not my most favoured role! I was wet for a full 14 hours. We

started turtling in the rain at 9:15pm, and I returned to turtle base at 6:30am with no sleep and soaked to the bone. I didn’t care. At all. It was an incredible experience and I would do it again in exactly the same way in a heart beat.

The week got all the more exciting… as you will know, because you follow this blog religiously, we have recently lost 2 members of the voluntee team, however, this week we gained 2 new members of staff; Sonja and Joao, both from the GVI Costa Rica terrestrial project.
We offered them a very warm welcome to the family here.

So heading now into our last week, and to give you a sneak preview of what’s to come, we have a Lion Fish competition coming up on Saturday, which our finest marksmen and women will take part, competing against the esteemed fishermen of Punta Allen. They have asked us to give a presentation on the reef, so we decided we would put on a show! It´s been a frenzied week of putting together costumes, casting and script writing… who knows, there might even be an Oscar or two to dish out…

As its been a limited week for diving there is not much to report from the underwater world; several of the 5 weekers are now monitoring, weather permitting, which is helping the base hit the goal number of transects for this phase. Fingers crossed that we will get some more dives in before we leave…

Hasta luego Amigos,

Besos,

Bex y Foxy

Week 8 in Pez Maya- familiarizing with base duties, Playa del Carmen visit, coral/fish exams passed and farewell to Griffin!

2011-09-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

aving found our individual comfort zones by now, in our own ways we, as a group, are beginning to become quite symbiotic with Pez Maya. Everyone is discovering new found talents and working to improve these skills; these skills range from simple mechanics, with everyone in the camp beginning to familiarise themselves with the compressor; to culinary wizardry, although with the introduction of our new base manager, Rhu – previously a head chef, Michelin Stars are now few and far between (as my hut found to our misfortune!), to managing to remain in one hammock for almost an entire day! Either way, the smooth operation of the base has continued - despite a few hiccups along the way.

Over the weekend the volunteers (with the exception of Frank and Regina) travelled to Playa Del Carmen for a night out and some much needed steak! We spent the night merrily, to say the least and many stories were told and re-told upon our return. After showering countless times in the worst, but best, shower in the hostel, we left feeling clean. However, I should add that organising and spending a weekend in Playa does not come without its stresses! Well done to Jonas, our self appointed Social Sec for getting that all sorted… Oh yea, we also went snorkelling in a lagoon somewhere on Sunday, but that really wasn’t the highlight of the weekend. The steak was. By a country mile.

Mid-way through week 3 for the 5 weekers saw everyone pass their Coral/Fish exam, so a massive congratulations to everyone! However, we cannot take our feet of the proverbial pedal as now there are monitoring techniques, coral diseases and a heap of other new bits of information to learn before we can actually become useful members of the scientific team here.

In the waters this week there have been several sightings of nurse sharks; in the lagoon, in the shallower sites, and even in some of the deeper ones. Also there are continual sightings of Lionfish, the enemy of the MBRS, and the staff are still on the hunt. Now the dive groups are split into smaller groups, the staff are more willing to wield their weapons – spears, it definitely is an interesting watch… not to mention a tasty meal once prepared back at base.

The clouds on the horizon are growing thicker, greyer and heavier every day. Only one wave has been cancelled so far due to the threat of weather, but in this instance the weather never came. And, fingers crossed, it never will!

We say another good-bye this weekend to Griff/Grifter/The Griffalo/Griffindor/The Griffinator aka Peter Gray (who found out that he is not stronger than Martin). His monotonous, dulcet tones, will be sorely missed… All the best in the future Griff!

Time for dinner now… i´m super hungry after another hard day so need to end this abru…

Week 8 (By Guess who)

Diary extract from Destiny Pequin May-June 2011

2011-09-07T04:24:00.000-07:00
Diary extract Destiny Pequin May - June 2011

The mayan wilderness challenge!

2011-09-03T12:27:00.000-07:00

Our first challenge is on and going! So far 9 participants between NSPs, volunteers, GVI and Amigos de Sian Ka'an staff have signed in to do it! We aim to have more people joining so if you like sports, challenges or just want to be part of a unique tour and have lots of fun come to Mexico and join us!!!

We set the target to 1000 USD or 650GBP per participant to raise. The funds will be used to buy recycling bins to continue with the recycling center in Punta Allen and to buy equipment for the mapping project for Amigos de Sian ka'an.

We have a facebook page event! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=165462800197355 keep an eye on it as more news on how the training and fund raising is going will be published there!

This is an excellent excuse to travel to Mexico and join us in the challenge!
Just say “I want to do it”!

Set up a fundraising page-we will show you how. Then ask your friends and family to support you in your Mayan challenge. Start training and we will see you on the 26th October!

The fundraising target will cover the cost of participation (400USD) Includes: food, accommodation (camping), equipment, transportation, professional guides.
Alternatively people can pay for participation independently and direct all funds raised to the GVI CT

26 October: Kayaking from Pez Maya to Paso Lagartos
27 October: Kayaking from Paso Lagartos to Punta Allen
28 October: Cycling from Punta Allen to Tulum

The challenge begins at the Pez Maya base on the 26th. You will adventure Into the lagoon to start rowing to Paso Lagartos (20km). We will be camping that night at Paso Lagartos on the beach and then head towards Punta Allen (20 kms) where we will camp again under the stars. The last day we will cycle to Tulum (50 km) where a surprise will be waiting!

Special thanks to Joao for the creation of the poster.

Foresty culture workshop in Tulum!

2011-09-02T16:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday the Tulum Environmental Education network to which GVI is part of, organized a Forestry Culture workshop. We were invited to participate together with people from different organizations such as Centro Ecológico de Sian Ka’an (CESIAK), Centro Ecológico Akumal (CEA), Ecobahia, Municipality of Tulum and some others. The National Forestry commission was in charge of giving the workshop which focused in different techniques to raise awareness on Forestal conservation and education.

We were given a lot material which will be used in future environmental workshops that volunteers and staff from our Marine conservation expeditions organize with our close communities like Mahahual, Tulum, Muyil and Punta Allen. A very insightful and fun workshop!

First five weeks in Punta Gruesa video!

2011-09-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

A very touching video from the first five weeks in Punta Gruesa! by Fernando Cobos, current participant from our National Scholarship programme.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ta9OsktrHTs&feature=player_embedded

Small Details that Make Your Day

2011-08-31T11:40:00.000-07:00

I personnaly think a good way to stay happy in your life is to allow yourself to be amazed by little things of you suroundings. In other words: do not get too used to your environment, open your eyes and appreciate variations of your little world. Don't wait until you hit the jackpot to be impressed. It starts straight up in the morning with a different sunrise and a quick look at the sea to spot a Great Blue Heron or Great Egret hunting and instead of doing your morning duty you're asked to go birding on the beach! Then for breakfast, mango is replacing the apple giving your porridge a tropical taste and the coffee is especially good. Surprise, your name has been added on the diving board and you'll be diving more than you thought. On the reef you spot a juvenil trunkfish, probably the cutest fish ever, and a Mussa angulosa, a coral that looks like Mick Jager's lips. On the way back your captain draws your attention on a hawksbill turtle breathing at the surface on the calm laguna. Back at base, somebody needs all your gear avoiding you to wash it and put it back and miraculously lunch is ready. You enjoy a short nap in your favorite hamock before kitting up for your next wave. Your propose yourself for radio duty when you get back and get amazed by the ants carriying a bastard fly on the wall, you observe the termits rebuilding their tunnel with soldiers guarding the entrance and the workers carriying particles of sand. You ask yourself how can they be so strong and so well organize. You enjoy a cold Lata (beer can) that you put in the fridge earlier in the day on the beach with your friend drinking a usual warm beer. It's dinner time and the wind picked up making the Palapa (dinning room) a mosquitoe-free-zone. You find yourself enjoying banana bread on the beach watching an almost full moon rising from the horizon. The moon is now high and you realize that your flashlight is useless. You play a game of werewolf in circle with your mates before going to bed. While brushing your teeth you come accross the biggest hermit crab you've seen so far. You slip into your mosquitoe-net and enjoy your clean sheets while listenning couple of song. You pass out and dream about descending into the blue for an other amazing dive! Nothing sensational, just couple of little things that you took the time to realize that made your day an other awesome day!

Francis Cardinal

El Pancho del Mar

22/8/2011

GVI team attends the VI Mexican Coral Reef Conference

2011-08-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

Three excited staff members undertook the long trip across Mexico to Ensenada, Baja California last Tuesday to present data at the VI Congreso Mexicano de Arrecifes de Coral, and to rub shoulders with some of the bigwigs of Mexican, and international, coral reef research.

The 3 day conference saw a diverse set of posters and presentations ranging from topics such as overfishing to incredibly complicated coral genetics!

Pez Maya Base Manager Vicki Bush presented her poster “Evaluation of Reef Resilience on the North Coast of the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve” (created with Lois Moriel-Robles from our partners Amigos de Sian Ka’an), whilst Stuart Fulton (former base manager) and Country Director Lluvia Soto-Jimenez presented their work “Distribution, Diet and Management of the Lionfish, Pterois sp. in Pez Maya and Punta Gruesa, Quintana Roo, Mexico”. Both were well received by the attending delegates.

The trip wasn’t without time to let their hair down though – the closing ceremony for the event was held at a vineyard located in Baja California’s prime wine producing region and included a tour of the vineyard and, of course, a few free samples!

Diary extract from Jessica Fish April-June 2011

2011-08-28T16:23:00.000-07:00
Jessica Fish diary extract April - June 2011

Week 7 in Pez maya, by Foxy

2011-08-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Following on from the previous blog, my Week 2 (Week 7 of the Phase), was less about new experiences and more about finding and expanding our individual comfort zones; Learning how to shower with less and less water (some volunteers (female, I might add) boasting about now being able to use a quarter of a bucket per wash… whether they are finding all the crucial crevasses or not, I shall leave unsaid); finding comfort in being constantly sandy and/or salty; not being scared every time an iguana crosses our paths, or decides he wants a good night kiss; “enjoying” a warm soda or beer; dealing with the bruises from entering and exiting the boat; feeling increasingly confident in our diving abilities – all the “Newbies” being one, all exciting Deep Dive away from the Advanced Open Water certification; increasing our scientific knowledge - with over half of the “Newbies” having passed the written Coral/Fish exam; and finally getting used to the wonderful, and occasionally weird, company we are in!

Apart from the weekly beach clean, the weekend provided us with a chance for a “fun dive”, with no teaching or science, and an opportunity to get offsite! Those that did venture offsite ventured to Tulum, the closest town, and they used their time to catch up with their loved ones, find something cold to drink, and to get some much desired meat in their system! It was also an opportunity to buy some alcohol for the impending party that Saturday night would behold… Those that stayed on site had a relaxing afternoon kicking back in the hammocks, feeling very carefree indeed!

So, Party Night… I´m not sure who exactly will be reading this, so I shall leave it fairly vague and leave the rest to your very own lucid imaginations… The night was kicked off with everyone taking a Tequila shot from the infamous Wizard Stick, whilst donning the Wizard hat… Then the Cereal Box Game was instigated… Once everyone was suitably liberated by the alcohol some serious dancing started. We had Salsa dancing, Belly-dancing, Rave, Two-Step, and everything in between… There was even a spot of George Sampson style rain dancing! Everyone was performing at the top of their game – this was unequivocally due to our DJ, Austria´s finest export, Roman “Get your hands in the Air” Schagala. Needless to say, that night brought everyone in the camp closer, and you could see the following morning when people would sheepishly grin to each other and recollect tales of hilarity and embarrassment, that they knew they had let their guard down ever-so-slightly.

Monday seemed to roll around far too quickly for most, and recommenced the routine that we are all beginning to get used to; the early wake ups, the chores, and more importantly the dives! I make it sound a lot like hard work, but it comes with the territory. This place needs us to do our bit to keep it-self operating and to allow the staff to concentrate on the more important things like planning, conservation and science.

Other things to note from the week, a Terrestrial community project has begun, whereby several volunteers and 2 staff travel to a local community to teach them some basic English. Reports came back of a thoroughly entertaining afternoon; I look forward to my turn! Well done to Vicky for getting that one sorted.

Birding also recommenced after a few days break, aside from the common Mangrove Swallow, not a great deal was spotted… The monitoring will continue throughout the phase, and no doubt beautiful things will be spotted.

During a late night stroll one of the volunteers spotted a Turtle nesting, one of natures most amazing sights. There are few words that can describe what was seen, but it seemed like a true labour of love.

Finally, on another note, I am still waiting for some rainfall to test the water collection system, of which a prototype has now been installed on one of the eight gutters in need of attention.

Enough from me this week… Off to yet another boat push, my least favourite chore of the day. I am rapidly losing my preciously soft city boy hands, and the calluses are growing and growing… along with my muscles (or so I´d like to think…)!

Hasta la vista.

Out with the old and in the new-by Foxy second five weeker in Pez maya

2011-08-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

As a newbie to Pez Maya it was a little daunting entering into a phase mid-flow; with a group of people who already have made their bonds, shared experiences and understand each other. In my mind I had no idea how a bunch of new people would be received. The dynamics of the entire group would inevitably shift. Not necessarily for better or worse, but it’s a well known fact people do not always like change. However, I think I can speak for all the new 5 weekers when I say we have felt nothing but warmth from the remaining 10 weekers and the staff alike.

With the 10 weekers on a Party weekend in Playa Del Carmen, seeing off the first wave of 5 weekers, we entered into the Camp without apprehension. It was time for us to learn the ropes for ourselves. Our first volunteer experience on base was to conduct a ‘beach clean’, this happens every Saturday with a view to collect sample data about what type of waste is washed up on the beach, where it has come from and how much it weighs. There is a 300m transect that is monitored every week, but this week we had the pleasure of attempting to clean the entire beach, from the Base to the Point – approximately 3km! Needless to say it was adventures of epic proportions, with the prize find being a welding mask – quickly snapped up by Jim for Beach Olympics attire/scaring the living daylights out of volunteers at night!

The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around either in the hammocks or in the communal space whilst the staff tended to our every need, proving to us that with enough effort and teamwork culinary delights (without meat) really are possible. Did I mention they cleaned up after us too?! El Paradiso.

On Sunday evening the remaining 10 weekers returned to Base after what seemed to have been a weekend of highs and lows seeing off our predecessors. The rest of the night was spent with them reliving tales of the last phase over a few luke-warm beers.

It was back to business on Monday morning with a 7am start, 2 dives per day and a shed load of duties; Communal, Grounds, Boat and Kitchen - One duty, per day, per hut. The staff are no longer taking care of us.

By Tuesday all the 5 weekers had achieved their PADI Open Water certification, so I’d like to take the opportunity to congratulate each of those “under” achievers and to thank all the staff that helped us to get there, notably Mark and Shannon. As the saying goes, “there ain’t no rest for the wicked” as we have now we have all begun our Advanced Open Water training! The 10 weekers, meanwhile, are undergoing Rescue training, Point Intercept training and Coral Community training whilst continuing with the all important science.

The Base here is really beautiful; admittedly the lack of basic amenities like flushing toilets and showers took a day or two to adjust, but if you are able to get over that, in my humble opinion the good outweighs the bad by a distance. When I feel a little down, I take myself to the hammocks, look out to the beach and remind myself where I am and what I am doing, and my troubles no longer matter, they are trivial. Despite its beauty, there is still work to be done on Base. The staff are always looking for ways to improve the experience for future volunteers. For example, currently the staff are trying to implement a new water collection system to improve the site sustainability. With an Architectural background, I saw this as a perfect opportunity for me to use my skills to give something back to the community here. This is not a place solely for Marine mad people, but for everyone, there is the opportunity for each and every person with their own specific skill set and passions to get involved and give something back; anything, no matter how big or small.

Right, I’m being hassled to get ready for my next dive now (I know tough life eh!?) so I must sign off for now… But if you’re reading this it means you’re interested in what we are doing here on Pez Maya, and that’s a start. The next step is to do something about it – remember ‘actions always speak louder than words.’

Foxy

Diary extract from Nathan dive master intern in Punta Gruesa!

2011-08-19T10:00:00.000-07:00
It is already the sixth week of the 10 week conservation project here at Punta Gruesa. The first wave of five week volunteers have come and gone and now three more members have been added to our team. For myself it is interesting to be in a different role in the second five weeks. I am no longer new to the base life, the day to day structure, or expectations of our projects, instead everything feels rather comfortable. It puts people who have been here longer in a more responsible position. We are now teaching the newcomers about the very things we found difficult only five weeks ago. It is a measure of our progress. There are few things in which you can see your progress and knowledge grow so quickly, it is very rewarding to be part of a program that makes you grow as a person.

We are learning valuable skills. For those participating in the dive master internship like myself, we are beginning the rescue diver course. A qualification that can be life saving and critical for maintaining safety in the water, the rescue diver course expands our knowledge about scuba diving and challenges us to think before we act. It teaches us how to deal with possible dangerous situations with ease, maintain control, calmness, and most of all to be ready for any scenario that can happen in the water.

As we learn more about diving we are also actively participating in the conservation project. All the skills and knowledge we learned in fish and coral identification are now being used to collect data. Collecting data is rewarding, it is a feeling of accomplishment and confirmation that the work being put forth is worth the time, for we are now collecting data that can be used to protect coral reefs and the fish that inhabit them. The experience thus far has been incredible on so many different levels; it has been challenging, rigorous, peaceful, relaxing, demanding and casual, as well as mentally and physically stimulating. The nights drift swiftly into day and the days float steadily into weeks; before I know it, I will be working in a dive shop working towards my dive master. But just for today, I don't want to forget about living in the moment and appreciate the time left on base, for it will all be over before I know it.

Nathan

A green initiative to raise funds!

2011-08-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

Following Seychelles initiative of no plastic bags on base and trying to raise money for the Charitable Trust we found a local company that produces bags made out of cotton from Mexican producers and are manufactured by disable people from Mexico city. The bags are paid with publicity and in exchange they have their brand taken everywhere where the bags go and it is associated with a good cause- no more plastic bags!

The idea was to get a minimum amount of sponsors to produce them and then if we got more sponsors the money would go to support our Charitable Trust projects. We would give one bag for free to each volunteer and if people wanted more they could buy them and the funds would go to the Charitable Trust projects too!!

It is a project that started about 6 months ago and finally came through!! We have received the bags, each volunteer have their very own bag and they pay a small fee if they bring plastic bags to base. With this initiative plastic bag use on base has been reduced as they have an alternative. Donations to the Charitable trust have started. We continue in the search of more sponsors to produce more bags and more funds for the CT!!
The design is a collage between Andrew Cameron (former staff) Coral reef design, Sam Hadwich (former volunteer and scholar) lionfish design, the Punta Allen verde (CT in Mexico) logo, the Amigos Logo and the Charitable trust logos!

So far we have three dive shps sponsoring it and a coffee shop! Keep tune for more news on sponsors additions!

Coral for dummies

2011-08-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

What is a coral actually? Few decades ago most of the scientific communty still thought corals were pieces of rock or plants. If you look to a dead coral washed up on the beach you'd probably arrive to the same conclusion, or if you don't pay attention while diving you may think they're simply a type a marine plant, even a picture of some corals without an aquatic background could remind you of a fungus . I don't blame anyone for that, for thousand of years people used to think the Earth was flat and that our planet was the center of the solar system.

The common saying: All roads lead to Rome also proves that romans thought they're were situated in the middle of the world. Without adequate tools, it's hard to get an accurate idea of what we are looking at. Now we're are absolutely sure our planet isn't flat and neither in the center of our galaxy, nor are the corals plants or rocks.

Corals are in fact sessile animal forming colony, all small units are polyps. Like a lot of marine invertebrates forming shells the corals have the capacity to do biomineralisation or calcification. By this amazing process they're able to absorb the calcium carbonate dissolved in water and and excrete it to form a exosqueleton, a bit like bones but outside they're body. Corals also bear zooxanthellea, a microscopic algae, who capture the energy from the sun and transforme it through photosynthesis into carbohydrates. The polyp receive part of it and exchange it for protection and nutrients. For millions of years, corals have been building reefs made of calcium carbonate offering us right now probably the most diversed ecosystems of the world. But corals around the world now show many signs of distress; diseases, important bleaching, overcompetition with algae plus the damages caused by human activity. How will the ecosystem react with a weak reef? That's one of the questions our GVI expedition is trying to figure out by monitoring the corals and the fish community.

Interview with Amjad Alnajjar volunteer in Mahahual April-June 2011

2011-08-11T09:06:00.000-07:00
Case Study Amjad Alnajjar IGB134-EGB067 April-June 2011

Organic sponges in Pez Maya!

2011-08-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

As the previous blog entry says every week volunteers in the Mexican marine expeditions clean up the beach and record the data. In every clean up we find sponges washed up in the shore dead. They get disintegrated and with time, in the normal cycle of life, are reincorporated to the sea. As we try to be the most environmentally friendly as possible on base we have started to dry and use the washed up sponges to wash the dishes to avoid using artificial sponges that create more garbage once they are used! Thanks for this initiative to our new staff member Shannon!
Here is a photo on how our sink looks with our natural organic sponges!! They work as well as the artificial ones!

Cleaning Sian ka’an

2011-08-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday marked the start of a new exciting project in Sian ka’an Biosphere Reserve (second largest biosphere in Mexico). Leaded by Amigos de Sian Ka’an, local NGO and main GVI partners, the project aims to clean 20 kilometers of beach on a regular basis, collect and report the type of debris and countries of origin, increase local awareness and sum up efforts with other organizations.

Around 100 people including GVI volunteers and staff cleaned more than 20 kilometers of beach on Saturday collecting more than half a ton of debris. The garbage counted more than 45 countries of origin i.e. Haiti, Malaysia, USA, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Dominican Republic among many others. This is without a doubt a very ambitious project to which we will continue to be part of. Our weekly beach clean ups wil continue and will add data to this bigger project!

End of first 5 weeks in Pez Maya! mangroves tour, ship wreck and cenotes dive

2011-08-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

As we write this blog our fellow volunteers are busy doing morning duties for the last time in this half of the phase, as today is sadly our last day on base. The days have flown by and too quickly,it’s time for the 5 weekers to say goodbye. Our time here has been inspirational, eye opening, challenging (washing your hair and body with only one bucket) and sweaty but last but above allit’s been fun.
The diving has been amazing and from the double dive days the nervy have become confident, skilled divers taking on even the most challenging of swim throughs. If you’re reading this blog undecided whether to come to Pez Maya or not, 99.9% of volunteers here would tell you it will be the best decision you’ve ever made.

Although the manatees have eluded us, some of us were lucky enough to spot 2 nurse sharks this week - rather uncommon for this time of year as they much prefer colder water and its currently a toasty 28^oc at most of the dive spots.

Because of the recent boat engine problems and us being top geezers about it all, we were treated to a tour of the lagoon and a relaxing drift through the Mayan canals with everyone opting to don their life jackets like nappies for a more comfortable ride. The relaxation was a little too much for some who in usual fashion decided to monkey around, climbing mangroves and jumping off (you know who you are). After our relaxing dip we split off into two different groups to enjoy a weekend of diving activities. One group headed into Playa del Carmen for a night before venturing the next day to Puerto Morelos to do a wreck dive (a US navy ship sunk purposefully off the coast to commemorate the marine reserve it lies in), followed by a shallower dive at a beautiful spot called My Reef. We were treated to our first eagle ray sighting and a huge moray eel, easily the width of the manliest man`s thigh. The other group stayed in Tulum overnight then headed over to Dos Ojos to enjoy some of the best cenote diving in the Yucatan.

Both myself and Lex have enjoyed writing the blog each week for you guys and letting you know about the good and the bad (though really there’s very little of the latter). Hopefully these little entries each week have cemented your decision to join the expedition!

On behalf of Phase 113 we would like to thank all the staff for helping make this expedition the trip of our lives, love you.

Ciao peeps

Loves of love

Sophie and Lex xxx

Exploring around and deep dives on week 4 in Pez Maya-

2011-08-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks the end of our 4^th week on base. The time has absolutely flown and although there are many home comforts we are looking forward to getting back to, there are many things about life on base we know we will miss… the people (definite life long friends have been made), the diving, not having to wear shoes, or clothes really for that matter, and having a slice of the Caribbean coast as our front yard.
However, we still have this weekend to take in some sights (some of us are diving a cenote and others are exploring a wreck up the coast), as well as a full week of diving and monitoring next week.

Last weekend saw another festive Saturday night off. A bunch of us braved the road and trekked up to Playa with the unfilled intention of visiting the ruins at Coba on Sunday. Pez Maya ended up rocking out to the wee hours with those on base enjoying a well earned unwind and a trip to Tulum the next day.

Unfortunately one of our crew, Luke the Texas Ranger, had to leave our shores and return home due to ear problems which prevented him from diving. It hasn’t been the same without him y’all should know.

Importantly, we are all now certified Advanced Open Water Divers! Consensus for the favourite adventure dive of our course was definitely the deep dive. Several of our group felt the effects of nitrogen narcosis (or got ‘narked’ as we in the biz say. Regina the Rocket giggled like a 12 year old school girl for her entire trip and Soph while slightly giddy tried to pet a passing fish and stick her head in a sponge (!?).

Today our slice of paradise was threatened by storm clouds then battered by strong winds which prevented us from diving. Instead we had monitoring lectures which we will put into practice from tomorrow, as well as a talk from Martin and Mark on threats to the reef and a movie arvo to finish off the day. No rest for the wicked (well not too much anyway).

Spot you next week.

Soph and Lex

xxx

Reef data collection in Punta Gruesa!

2011-08-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

A week full of sun meant a week full of progress towards collecting actual scientific data for marine conservation, specifically for Amigos de Sian Ka'an, a NGO who's primary goal is to protect and preserve coastal and jungle areas in the Yucatan Peninsula. The data we collect is sent to Amigos of Sian Ka'an and then sent to government officials, with the hope to eventually create some sort of protection for coral reefs and mangrove habitats from the immense growth that is currently happening throughout the peninsula through no fish zones and national preserves. The work we are doing is applicable and worthwhile however, it is not exactly easy.

This week we began to start monitoring fish. The process is not terribly complex however, to do it well it takes practice and patience. We lay down 30 meters of measuring tape and record all fish located in a two square meter box in front of us. It is all timed and we are currently still just practicing; fine tuning our skills while being observed by a staff member, a pair of persons work out the kinks. We continue to practice. Hopefully soon we will be monitoring by ourselves and recording valuable information. A week in the water daily made the week seem like a day. Now we are moving onto week five with quite a bit of training ahead of us.
Nathan

Code Red in Punta Gruesa

2011-08-03T10:16:00.000-07:00

Life on base is in a hardcore way of living. Indeed, this week we found five “seriously injured” members of the staff scattered around base. One nearly drowned, another got electrocuted, one had fallen from the second floor, another was shouting to death because of her arterial bleeding while the last one fell on the slippery floor. The last member of staff standing alerted us to the situation with her hysterical scream. We realized later that she was “in shock”. Fortunately, we all practiced our Emergency First Responder 2 days before so we succeeded to save all of them! It was tempting at first to laugh at the fake situation but we quickly realized that this was an actual simulation to which we were expected to respond in a serious manner. While some were calling EMS, one was giving “CPR” or bandaging. A lot of fun with a real dose of adrenaline made us realized that Emergency First Responder training could be really useful!

July 28^th 2011

Francis Cardinal

El Pancho del mar

My encounter with a huge loggerhead turtle!

2011-07-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Behind our dive leader’s mask were a pair of eyes that had just seen something amazing. She made the sign for “Look over there!” and as I turned I saw an incredibly massive loggerhead turtle. It was probably about a meter and a half long and it was so old that it had barnacles growing on its shell. Its size and its curiosity startled me…it was approaching our group so quickly that I almost felt like I should move out of the way of this massive, ancient reptile, but instead of charging us it stopped and looked at us with a confused expression. I felt like this turtle was surprised and curious about what exactly we were, but at the same time its expression made me feel like it could almost be laughing at us for challenging nature by being in a place where humans aren’t really supposed to go.
As cliché as it sounds, being on the reef really does feel like being on a different planet sometimes…not being able to breathe, all of the unusual and beautiful organisms that don’t resemble anything you could find on land, and how it is so vast and unexplored. Usually when I’m diving I feel as though I go unnoticed by the complacent fish, but when another animal actually notices you and acknowledges your existence and misplacement in the sea, it’s kind of unsettling. However, despite the uneasiness the turtle’s gaze made me feel, it was actually one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. Seeing that turtle made me wonder about everything it must have lived through in order to survive as long as it had…the challenge of being a vulnerable baby turtle in the unforgiving ocean, avoiding fishing nets, being strong enough to swim incredible distances to mate…and what an incredible moment it was that it came up to our group in the ocean to look at us. This turtle’s consciousness and awareness of my existence in its world reminded me of why I am here doing conservation work; to help reverse some of the damage my species has done to a world of beautiful, mysterious creatures.

Anna S

Vienna, VA, USA

Lion fish article by Miguel Angel Galindo

2011-07-30T09:26:00.000-07:00
You probably know that as a way to promote local capacity and to ensure the knowledge and skills are kept in country. GVI has a National Scholarship programme that awards two places to nationals in every programme that we have. In Mexico, this programme has been very popular and we have received more than 80 scholars. Miguel Angel, was one of them. He is a veterinarian specialized in wildlife. He wrotes in a national magazine calle Naturalia and recently published the below article. A very interesting one to practice Spanish!!

pez_leon

"I Feel Like a Nurse" by Francis (DM intern in Punta Gruesa)

2011-07-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

Wait...let me explain what I mean by this title with a nice allegory! Let's say the Meso-American Barrier Reef is like a patient waiting in line at the clinic. The nurse is going first to take his temperature and pulse rate before sending for the doctor, is a bit like us monitoring both fish and coral on the reef. Similarly, our goal is to accurately evaluate the health of the reef. Once the doctor receives the results, he's going to declare his diagnostic, just as Los Amigos de S'ian K'aan and CONANP present our monitoring research on the health of the reef. These two conservation organisations receive our data, analyse it and decide whether we should adopt new environmental measures the same as the doctor prescribing medicine! That is why our job is important and has to be done properly! Simply because if we don't send the right information, the diagnostic will be biased and the medicine inappropriate.

Francis Cardinal
El Pancho del Mar
7\14\2011 Punta Gruesa

My third week in Punta Gruesa... By Nathan (DM Intern)

2011-07-28T08:57:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that it is already week three here at Punta Gruesa. Where the first week was rather slow and dragged, things have seemed to pick up. Everyone has seemed to fall into a daily routine, that of which is both mentally and physically demanding. The weather has been absolutely unbelievable- clear nearly the entire day and the entire night. It is intriguing to watch the sapphire-emerald sea transform into a deep nearly black-blue rolling surface. Once the sun sets, there is silence and slowly the stars begin to appear. Before one can realize it, the sky is flooded stars with the brightness of glistening diamonds. The pristine natural beauty that exists here is breathtaking; between the vastness of the ocean and night sky one can appreciate the simple things- like the cool breeze at the end of the day. Nice weather makes life on base easier.

As an intern at Punta Gruesa, the scholarly work has began to pick up. Starting the BTEC (British Technical Educational Console) course adds more work but at the same time I am being exposed to new information about marine life I never knew. Learning more about fish behavior and specific surveying techniques will broaden the scope of my understanding of what is happening on the reef. Learning and comprehending what is happening to life on the reef is the first step in initiating change. In just three weeks I have a new-found respect and appreciation for the ocean; specifically, the reefs we are exposed to daily. As a unit, I believe we are all quite content here at Punta Gruesa.
Nathan

Fair trade support to Amigos de Sian ka'an and local communities

2011-07-27T08:08:00.000-07:00
Supporting fair trade GVI joins in the promotion of hand made products produced locally by a network of rural-mayan communities in the Southern area of Quintana Roo. Take a look to the products and if you are interested go to the link www.kuxtalsiankaan.com to order online!

Catálogo Ak kuxtal Sian Kaan

Week 3 in Pez maya- snorkel with turtles, Advance open water & saving turtle's nests!

2011-07-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Week three has absolutely flown by. The end of week 2 found our entire group in Playa del Carmen where we revelled in air conditioning, free internet, restaurants that served meat and later… a sandy dance floor and phat beats courtesy of the Blue Parrot.

Hangovers and/or tired eyes in tow, on Sunday we stopped by Akumal where we snorkelled with Loggerhead turtles, sting rays and an abundance of fish and coral species (naturally by then we could identify most of them...).

This week has ramped up now that we have two operational boats. Everyone (bar the hut on kitchen duty) is now able to enjoy a double dive day. As a result, we are now steaming through our advanced open water dives and fish and coral spots are edging closer to 100% with every outing.

Scholar Esther and newbie Ari, created a real life game of Cluedo for everyone to play. Suspicion, intrigue and murder have been rife. The murderer is still at large…

Mid week saw drama in the form of a precariously placed turtle nest on the beach. Several volunteers had to relocate the nest to a safer place away from four wheel drives, bumbling tourists and curious fishermen.

This week we were joined by two new staff, Ari from our other base at PG (who has done a swap for two weeks with Shannon), and Jim, new to GVI (a shark guru from the land of Oz).

‘Til next week, adios from Pez Maya.

Soph and Lex
xxx

Jaguar and puma research project on its track!

2011-07-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

GVI Mexico programmes are not only about marine conservation but also about terrestrial conservation. The jaguar and puma research project helps the local organization El Eden to survey wildlife and big cats i.e jaguars, ocelots and pumas in the Peninsula Area in order to preserve them. As part of the project groups of volunteers have been surveying the area helping out to set up camera traps and identifying the species, especially jaguars. So far, two jaguars have been named after GVI volunteers and one of them completed a jaguar sound census which is been used as a tool for identification. It is so exciting to hear how the work of volunteers is helping to preserve this species. MANY MANY THANKS TO YOU ALL!

As you may know the Jaguar is an endangered species and a sacred one for the ancient Mayans. The first step that El Eden, together with other organizations, is doing to preserve it is a census to spot their location, dynamics and number of species existing. This will give them the information and tools to protect it, lobbying and raise awareness in the different social sectors to preserve it.
Three weeks ago a new enthusiastic group of volunteers started surveying the area in search of wild cats.

Hola chicos!

2011-07-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Que tal? Esta semana fue de poca madre (genial)! The sea is even more impressive than I could imagine it! The reef finally revealed some of its secrets, my diving squad and I got the privilege to meet a giant friendly green turtle! With my bionic eyes I was able to distinguish the circular camouflaged shape at the foot of the reef! I wanted to follow it in the deepness of the ocean to learn more about my new friend but unfortunately my dive profile was limited to 18 meters so I had to say hasta la proxima. I'm pretty sure I heard the turtle mumbling nos vemos pronto amigo!

To add a bit a spice on the base, we started a long term game called Gotch'a or Assassin. Everybody picks a person's name in a hat. The goal is then to ''kill'' your victim by whispering gotch'a in his ears. But be careful, no one must see you or else it wont count! Everybody got a bit paranoid in the first days and stick in group to avoid being killed. Some players were especially good at attracting their victims in their spider web, so good that we even called one player the black widow!

See you next time (if im still alive...)

Francis Cardinal
El Pancho del Mar
7\14\2011 Punta Gruesa

A stormy week in PG!

2011-07-21T02:11:00.000-07:00

Storms, storms, storms... that has been the mantra of this week. Nevertheless morale remained high even though we were unable to dive for a few consecutive days. Despite poor weather there are some positive, for instance we are able to sleep until 7am! That extra hour of sleep is welcomed by everyone. The day starts a little later and instead of diving the days were filled with lectures and beach volleyball. The biggest negative about the rain is that the mosquitoes spawn in great quantities faster than ever with the goal to make every volunteer as uncomfortable as possible. They become completely relentless, warriors I say biting you through your clothing, it seems as though you cant escape them. But sure enough, the wind picks back up and the mosquitoes are gone once again.

A big highlight of this week has been the dissection of the lionfish. Lionfish are an invasive species that eat everything on the reef. Due to the fact they have no natural predators in the area they are free to eat and breed continuously eating innumerable amounts of juvenile fish. They are a serious problem in the Caribbean and as a result they are hunted to preserve species and health of the coral reef. After catching one of these monsters, it was dissected and a lesson was given in depth about the fish and how it has become a problem. Life on base these days has slowed down a bit. They weather is beginning to pick up again so diving is back on the agenda. I'm excited to get back in the water.

Until next week,

Nathan

Welcome to week 2 in Pez maya!

2011-07-20T11:04:00.000-07:00

So we’ve had another interesting week this week vision's engine (our one working boat) broke on Friday while last group were heading out to dive in rather stormy seas this meant the rush was on to get ka’ays engine fixed so we’d still be able to dive.

The beach outside the front of base has become a seen from cast away with the boys building their own raft from things they’ve found along the beach that washed up, launch will be in a day or 2 and were all rather excited to see whether it’ll be sink or swim for them.

Saturday was party night on the base as well as meat night, there was plenty of drinking and dancing. Sunday we all went to the local Mayan ruins in Tulum with hangovers in tow where Kevin who is the resident “model” treated us to some amazing poses, then into town for a cheeky meal or 2 for a hangover cure.

Most of the open water groups are coming up to their final dives before becoming certified with spot dives already being performed by those who are already certified, the reef is a beautiful peaceful place abundant with fish and coral species. Well when I say peaceful I really mean until it’s peaceful until
someone starts busting out the moves to Saturday night fever 11 meters down.

There haven’t been that many incidental sightings this week though a little Boa was found sleeping in someone’s wetsuit highlighting the fact that you always need to shake it out before putting it on because who knows who’s home. Hopefully this lack of sightings will of changed soon seems as the full moons out and when the sky is clear its light enough you don’t need a torch to see meaning if you walk along the beach you can hope to catch a turtle coming up onto the beach to nest before returning to sea.

This weekend the base will be deserted as everyone is heading to Playa del Carmen to rave it up and enjoy a night of air con and running showers in a local hotel followed by snorkeling in a well-known turtle spot and visiting one of the most beautiful cenotes in the Yucatan.

Right time to get my tan and cook lunch its pizza today

xxxx

International Conference on Tourism-Cozumel 2011

2011-07-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

Last week we were invited for the second time to the International Tourism Conference organized by Quintana Roo State University (UQROO) in Cozumel Island. We gave a talk about volunteer tourism and how it has helped achieving our partners’ goals and objectives. It was a great success and many people got interested as it is a very new concept in Mexico. A topic that can be very polemic too as I experienced from a smiliar talk given in Sweden to Sustainable development Master students. At the end, every body learned that volunteer tourism is not about volunteering to be a tourist!!! :) but about the importance of volunteers to help achieving the local organization's goals.

During the congress in Cozumel we also attended very interesting talks about religious tourism; accessible tourism for disable and elder people as well as folks with babies and kids that also find not so friendly places and how that industry is developing little by little; rural tourism and its implications in the sustainable rural development of Mexico, oxygen bars on the health tourism area and many more! A very well organized and interesting event!

Put the Lime in the Coconut!

2011-07-15T03:49:00.000-07:00

Meat may not be abundant at Punta Gruesa, but Coconuts are! And what's a better way to meet people and get protein than to do a huge coconut peeling party! Some were using knives, others conch shells to get the precious reward: coconut milk!!! But the technique isn't simple and risk-free, watch your fingers and even if it took you half an hour to open the floating treasure you may have lost your time and opened a rotten one.
By the end of the day, we had so much coconut that we made a vegetable curry with a coconut sauce !

Francis Cardinal

El Pancho del Mar

7\7\2011 Punta Gruesa

Week one in Punta Gruesa!

2011-07-13T03:46:00.000-07:00

I have made many complicated decisions in my life; however, coming to Punta Gruesa as a six-month intern has been a more eye-opening experience than I could have ever imagined and it's still the first week of being here! Who knows if its still the honeymoon period of my underwater adventure but thus far it has been exciting, challenging, demanding and fun.
I am sure there will be ups and downs throughout the course of the internship but that is as natural as the change in the ocean's tide. Punta Gruesa is located on a desolate beach, just south of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere where the Meso-American Barrier Reef is the welcome mat to our scuba research and education. The center looks directly onto the aquamarine blues and greens of the Caribbean. Sometimes I can't even distinguish the sea from the ocean, the colors melt together along the horizon.

Every morning starts bright and early, at 6:00am. The entire unit of volunteers is divided into groups and we take care of the mundane aspects of running a functional research and educational center. Before one can even realize it, it is time to dive. Today was my deep dive in a location known as Las Gorditas. As I descended from the surface the sun began to slowly fade and the ocean floor became clear. It was a pristine underwater wonderland. A sandy bottom carved through massive walls of corals and enormous sponges lined the coral walls in every color. Parrotfish were everywhere and a small group of Porkfish moved in and out of crevasses seemingly undisturbed by our presence. All of a sudden I realized I was at 90 feet below the sea. It was a fascinating experience. That was just one of many dives- each one better than the last. I can't begin the describe the potential this program has in the context of my future. It is a drastic change from my political economic studies in university and I am glad I am finally taking a risk to follow a path that is on the opposite spectrum of my broad interests. So far...I've found...It Works If You Work It!

Punta Gruesa
Nathan Connors

HOLA FROM PEZ MAYA!!

2011-07-12T09:56:00.000-07:00
The first week has zoomed by and everyone’s finally getting to know one another with a couple of cheeky personalities shining through. Part of one of the boat engines was stolen the week before we arrived so there was no diving till Friday, though we found plenty of other things to do with our time including Spanish lessons from the Mexican scholar girls Eliza and Regina. On Thursday the mechanics finally came and serviced the engine of Vision so the girls kicked back and relaxed with a glass of lime water while we watch the boys pretend to be manly towing the motor around and helping the mechanics.

Despite the lack of diving there’s been plenty of incidental sightings including crocodiles, baby loggerhead turtles, dolphins (a calf and its mother which we got to snorkel with) and a few rays and snakes thrown in for a nice mix.

Saturday was party night and the evening flowed well with plenty of dancing (though some of us had a little too much) then with our hangovers cured by French toast we head into town for food cooked by someone who can actually cook, the internet and sightseeing at the local ruins in Tulum.

There’s all been daily exercises classes including yoga and interval training though at the minute it’s only the hardcore gym heads taking part another week of carbs and the whole base will be joining in.

People are slowly getting into the flow of base life though I doubt well ever get used to being below mosquitos in the food chain everyone is very itchy.

The weekends been and gone so it’s back to spot dives for the certified people and finishing OW for the rest.

Until next time

Muchos love

Sophie & the rest of phase 113 xxx

Marine turtles Annual report 2010-GVI Amigos de Sian Ka'an

2011-07-11T17:37:00.000-07:00
ASK-GVI Informe Tortugas Marinas 2010_LMR

Enjoying the Caribbean

2011-07-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

Before I came to Punta Gruesa, I was a little apprehensive about what to expect. I had read my training manual and looked over the blog, but of course it's impossible to know what things will really be like until you actually get there. In all honesty, I couldn't be happier with how things have turned out. The individuals on base are all fascinating people from all over the world, the staff is knowledgeable and relatable, and the other volunteers are laid back and fun. The food here is delicious as people have been quite enthusiastic and creative with the ingredients available. Today our menu is Indonesian themed, with traditional rice porridge with hot spiced mangoes and apples for breakfast and a stir fry with peanut satay sauce for lunch. The only slightly frustrating thing about living here has been the bugs, but when you wake up at sunrise to a white sand beach and palm trees with fresh coconuts the bugs really aren't so bad...

The diving has been awesome, with everyone diving at least once per day. The reef spots I've seen so far have been beautiful, with great biodiversity and interesting coral formations.
It has only been six days and already people have seen turtles, rays, and lionfish. Aside from diving, studying has been a common activity as people are beginning to take their coral and fish tests and working on their Advanced Open Water PADI certification, but we're still very relaxed here. Hammock lounging, snorkeling, and volleyball playing, and having a beer or two on the beach after dinner are everyday activities, and if it rains the volunteers are quick to take advantage of the fresh water for showers. Two days ago we had a heavy rainstorm which was well-received by everyone! We all ran outside with our shower supplies in hand washing the accumulated salt out of our hair. After our showers we played an intense game of volleyball, still in the rain, until we were called in for a lecture about coral anatomy. So far, I'm incredibly happy with my decision to spend five weeks of my summer here, and the only thing I'm worried about is how quickly the time is going to pass.

Anna S

Vienna Virginia, USA

Playing with Amigos de Sian ka'an in Pez Maya!

2011-07-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

After 7 years of successful partnership with Amigos de Sian Ka’an (ASK) it finally happened! The so expected event!! the day when all ASK and GVI staff met….was a success!! Around 20 people from the three offices from ASK paid us a visit in Pez maya on Monday.

Punta Gruesa staff arrived on Sunday night to help preparing everything for ASK arrival and to enjoy life on base. ASK arrived around midday and had a tour around base which they seemed to really enjoy as they had a lot of questions and wanted to know more about base and how volunteers live!
The weather was not great but it respected us as it rained only at the very beginning and at the end which allowed us to play the traditional Pez Mayaolympics on the beach which we all enjoyed like kids! We were also lucky enough to have Danny, our Regional Director and Gonzalo, ASK Executive Director to talk more about the partnership, how it all started and how useful the data gathered throughout the years has been as well as the importance of our presence to preserve it as it is.
All in all it was great playing and knowing more from each other and we are looking forward to more days like it! Rumour says it now will be in Punta Gruesa (our southern base)!!

Dive Master Internships in Mexico! More additions to the diving professional world! Yeah!!

2011-06-29T09:07:00.001-07:00

Last Friday 16 fresh Dive Masters completed their internship in XTC dive shop in Xcalak, Dreamtime in Mahahual and Aldora divers in Cozumel. They all improved their skills as divers, leaders and dive shop logistics so they are ready to join the professional world of Diving!!!

Congratulations to all of you and welcome to the diving and marine conservation world! Thanks to the trainers and instructors that ensured they got just the top of the top of trainings!!

Six new Dive Master trainees have joined the dive shops and in 12 weeks time they will be ready to join the professional world of diving and who knows maybe even to become a dive instructor!

Punta Gruesa in pictures! April-June 2011

2011-06-29T08:48:00.000-07:00
A very succesful phase for Punta Gruesa too! A big thank you to all volunteers and staff that made it happen. Thanks so much for your enthusiasm, great attitude, insight and hard work. All the sites were monitored which is of great use for our local partners Amigos de Sian Ka'an. We accouted:

65 monitoring boats
183 training boats
45 benthic transects - equivalent to 1.35km of reef
973 coral colonies monitored
72 fish transects - equivalent to 2.16km of reef
2359 fish identified and monitored
845 tanks used
298 colonies monitored for Coral Watch
3 Seagrass transects
1500kg of fruit and veg
100kg of porridge
Completed the most fish and coral transect this phase since phase 101!

Pez maya in pictures! April-June 2011

2011-06-28T10:19:00.000-07:00
Another succesful phase has come through in Mexico. Despite the uncommon fact of very few volunteers this phase the objectives were accomplished! Accounting:

155 Boats for training and monitoring
752 Tanks filled
66.96 kg of rubbish collected
5 Sharks recorded
14 Rays recorded
31 Turtles recorded
6 Eels recorded
4 Snakes seeing
68 Lionfish recorded
4 Crocodiles seeing
10 Dolphins recorded

Many thanks to everybody for your time, effort, energy and ideas!

Case study from Steven Ashby-Punta Gruesa

2011-06-20T16:18:00.000-07:00
Case Study Steven Ashby IGB134 Jan-March 2011

Last day in Punta Gruesa!

2011-06-18T06:15:00.000-07:00

Today is our last full day at Punta Gruesa, but there are many reasons to celebrate! This morning’s boat ride was one on a salty glass surface where you could practically see yourself staring into the transparent bottom below. Going full throttle through the pass is a magnificently rare event. Normally, we are combating waves and protecting our bums and backs from the inevitable slamming of the hull. Dipping down into the ocean blue, one could see for 25 meters in all directions and there was not a surge to be found.
The last of the data that our phase needed was the much anticipated rovers.

Each coral researcher was paired with a fish researcher, and the main goal was to literally count all the adult fish or any coral that you could see. The final boat just dropped anchor back
on the beach with the very last rover data in hand. It is a very bittersweet way to end our
business with GVI, sad to be leaving, yet ecstatic to have completed all the transects and
rovers. You know that there will be many toasts to this accomplishment tonight, our last
fiesta together. P.S. SARAH RULES!

Diary extract from Doug Coughran-April-May 2011

2011-06-17T07:01:00.000-07:00
Diary extract -Doug Coughran - April to May 2011

Farewell Pez Maya

2011-06-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

It is so strange how this is the end of the 10th week, and also our stay here. It seems like a long time since we first got here, but it also doesn’t. We have learned and experienced so much so maybe we haven’t really noticed the time, and suddenly it’s time to leave.

This week has brought us some seasonal thunder storms. The rain was much welcomed, however we were unable to dive. Instead we filled our time with dancing in the rain and watching the
lightning show.

After a huge final boat push, base cleaning and data entry, our work here is sadly done.
Wonderfully, everyone is going to Playa del Carmen for the weekend so we can have a big party together and say our final goodbyes to good friends.

Pez Maya really has felt like home for the past 10 weeks. We are all really going to miss it and our iguana friends. Especially The Don, who is the boss iguana. However we won’t miss the mosquitos.

It’s gonna be good eating all the food at home that we don’t have here, but after that is done, we are really gonna miss our creative home cooked meals.

So farewell Pez Maya, it has been a great experience.

Over and out from cookiemonsters,
Becky & Krissy

diary extract Amanda Cota April-May 2011

2011-06-13T06:51:00.000-07:00
Diary extract Amanda Cota April - May 2011