More Pez Maya
Trip Start
Mar 22, 2005
1
24
26
Trip End
Sep 09, 2005
Loading Map
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
Pez Maya, Mexico
Saturday, September 10, 2005
I wrote this for GVI's web site and you can also find it here:
http://www.gvi.co.uk/pages/expeditionDetail.asp?page=stories&expedition=66
A Day in the Life - GVI Pez Maya, September 2005
It was on the boat ride back from a dive site about 10km north of camp that everything came together. Wanting to watch as a house here and there popped up on the shoreline and as the color of the sea changed from deep blue to turquoise to sky, but needing to keep my eyes closed to keep out the glaring mid-day sun and salt water, I thought about the dive we just finished. And the last three weeks-all of the fantastic and all of the frustrating moments-suddenly came together. Just over an hour before, the boat dropped me and 5 other divers at a new site for what would be my first official monitoring dive. With a bit of awe, I thought about that dive: that I knew the name of everything (Latin names for coral, no less!) that laid beneath the 30 meter tape measure we unraveled on the bottom of the Caribbean sea, that we rolled into the water, descended, did our work of scribbling down species names, measuring coral, and counting fish, and then met up again just like a professional dive team, that we collected information in a way that it can be contributed to scientific research on the reef, and that all this was alongside a group of people who were complete strangers a few weeks ago but now beginning to resemble family.
I came to Pez Maya with a couple ideas in mind but not really knowing what to expect. I wanted to learn a lot about coral reefs, I wanted to get more experience diving, and I wanted to do something that would contribute to our understanding (and protection) of the coral reefs. On that boat ride back to base, I felt confident that I had accomplished everything I'd hoped to and marveled a bit about the unexpected experiences. Over the past few weeks, we crammed coral and fish names into our heads while getting confident enough diving to carry slates and tape measures and hover (often upside down) above the reef while writing and measuring and counting. At the same time, the 30 of us learned to work as a team so that the base-lacking the usual conveniences of power and running water-would function, and we'd all have food to eat, water to drink, tanks to dive with, etc. Everything was working.
The opportunity to live, learn and work in a nature reserve has been a combination of awe-inspiring moments and at first unbelievable but now mostly comical frustrations. Our first week together included a lot of time learning what is now routine: how to cook for 30 people, how to get the boats equipped for a day's diving, how to not get eaten alive by mosquitoes (still learning that one!), how to make a bucket of water into a suitable shower, how to pronounce and spell Latin coral names, how to tell a damselfish from a hamlet... And, getting to know everyone surprisingly quickly and working as a team, we were soon not thinking twice about attempting (and succeeding!) at moving a ridiculously large log across the beach to create seating in a newly-built thatched-roof hut or remodeling the BCD room. And, despite the harsh elements and sun-up to sun-down schedule we are appreciating the beauty around us everyday: staying up late to at night to watch stars and lightening shows, pausing every morning to see the sunrise paint colors across the sky and over the sea, watching the birds, iguanas and geckos, surveying the ever-changing lagoon, and swooning at the color of the water, especially days when its so clear, from 30 feet up on the surface, we could almost identify the coral below. Weeks in, everyone still gets excited when a dive comes back with news of "rays!" or "a loggerhead!" or "sharks!" And, all of us were filled with joy and worry for our newest family members when, after they spent a day with us, we watched a dozen baby green turtles swim out to sea at sunset.
Now at the end of trip, as the lists of email addresses are passed around and everyone talks about what their plans are next, its unbelievable to think how quickly 5 weeks have gone by, how resiliently we've all adapted to the climate and the work, and how hard it will be to say goodbye to each other and this place.
This is a private blog 
