More news from Pez!
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
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Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Pez Maya, Mexico
Sunday, February 10, 2008
At the moment I`m pretty much running on empty due to a hectic party night last night (roughly 3 hours sleep before coming into Tulum...) and an amazing Steve Irwin-style crocodile hunting trip on Friday night- fantastic! But so tiring- we set out in the dive boat at about 5.30pm and drove to the mangroves, where we spent the next 7 or 8 hours (after watching the sun set over the lagoon) in the dark with a searchlight looking for crocodiles- it was awesome!! We caught 5 crocs- 4 really little ones and a bigger one. We chased after this guy who must have been 3 metres at least, but no way would we have been able to get him in the boat! Four of us went out with Miguel and Fidel who are pretty hot on the whole reptile business (Steve Irwin went to Fidel for advise/ knowledge at one point...) and know the mangroves like the back of their hands. It was such a surreal night- we drove through patches where all around us fish would jump out of the water just for kicks it would seem! One jumped right into the boat, but me and Kirsty rescued it- much to the dismay of Bill and Fidel who were going to eat it. Ha! And towards midnight when we were about to head back, Fidel made the most spectacular catch EVER- it was awesome! He was steering us through some really narrow waterways- the pole got stuck in some bushes on one side so I was trying to rescue that, and looked back to see Fidel bent back over the stern trapped by a branch, sitting on the accelerator so the engine was revving like crazy, only to surface brandishing a crocodile in one hand, with huge grin on his face! Bearing in mind that heīs 76, thatīs pretty damn impressive! So anyway, having caught the crocs, we weighed and measured them, marked them by clipping certain scales to show their number and took a blood sample from the bigger ones. Very, very cool. Got back around 1.30am- and Iīm telling you, the last thing you want to do at that time is a bloody boat push! Especially when you know that you have to get up in about 4 hours or so. Not good!
Last weekend was awesome too as it was the long weekend so we had from Friday through til Monday to chillax and do what we wanted. So we spent a lot of that time partying at Boca Paila, which is this awesome fishing ranch about a 50 minute walk along the beach. They let us stay there on Friday night for 5 US dollars each, which paid for booze as well- pretty good... Very generous guys- great kite surfers too. Saturday some of us went to Playa del Carmen with the intention of doing a couple of dives- a tortuga (turtle) dive and a night dive, but it didnīt work out so we just bummed around in Playa (not very inspiring- very touristy and commercial) for the day, then went back for another party in the evening :) it was sweeeeeeet. Randomly met some awesome guys in Playa as well; they were environmental activists and so dedicated to their work even though they had to go through so much hardship to survive- pretty inspiring. Sunday was spent recovering, not surprisingly, and Monday we trekked into Tulum for some lunch at Charlieīs- this awesome, really cheap restaurant me and Kirsty love and order the same thing every time we go there... They know us well! Though choice is limited when youīre veggo... (This is me breaking it to you all gently that I have seen the light, and have returned to my veggie roots!! You know it makes sense...)
Did some more TEFL on Wednesday evening- went to Punta Allen to teach some of the kids a little bit of the old English language. The more I think about it, the more ridiculous I realise our language is and I pity anyone learning it! Kind of ironic that it is so widely spoken...
And Thursday evening some of us went to Boca Paila to teach the staff some basic English, but they were too shy and wimped out, but as we got some cold beers out of it it was definitely worth it! Anything cold is such a luxury!
Fish test and juvy test is now out of the way, and have finally done some monitoring, but donīt think I will get much in before I leave... Too much to do!! Had an awesome fun diveon Saturday- we went to Special K, which is a deep dive site, and Chris, Kirsty and I got to dive unsupervised :) it was so much fun!! Though pretty dangerous, ripping out each otherīs regulators, nicking fins and masks and taking off BCDs at 26 metres... And breaking profile... But it was the best dive yet! Itīs a really awesome site too- loads to explore and see.
Hope you are all well, Iīll see some of you pretty damn soon!
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Still no pictures, sorry!
