The final week at Mahahual

And so the end is here, time to say good-bye to Global Vision International (GVI). So as not to detract from my blog entry i have said what i really thing about GVI at the end. This is a very held back version but happy to share more on request.

So, the final week. All that praying to the wind God Paid off and we had a good week for diving. Up until this point we had sat around doing very little and we were starting to go slightly crazy!

We did manage to finish all of the sites that we were monitoring, which was quite exciting.


Me with all my monitoring equipment. 30 meter tape measure with a weight, slate and a pencil.

The tape is laid out, at a bearing decided by me, and then we write what is under the tape every 25 cms. There is another person that writes down the condition of the coral and if there is any disease. The data is all written up and sent somewhere........

Last dive was a fun dive. We picked our group and location. Renee, Sara, Christie, Andrea and Jo with Heather at the camera all at 007. We saw a turtle, a big barracuda and lots of other cool fish and coral.

As you can see from the blog i have had fun. I have met some great people and they have made this trip for me. I leave as a Rescue Diver, Emergency First Responder, Coral Reef Conservation and Underwater Photography level 2. There is an achievement in itself.

A few moments from the final week

I finally perfect my flips.
Swinging Andrea and Heather in the hammock, it was pretty high, i would have been scared!


Mixing up the cocktails for the final party. Illusion, Long Island Ice Tea and Jungle Juice.

Sara and Jo, without each other i think we would have gone slightly crazy. A great new friend and someone i hope to travel with a little later on.

My cabana, home for 10 weeks with Crystal, Amanda, Phil, Viv, Me and Renee. We had some good times. We were definitely the best in the kitchen and the most creative on the bread making front.

The next stage is back to Xcalat to try to get to the Atoll, again. After that off to Belize and then Guatemala. I am really looking forward to seeing new countries, diving on different sites and meeting new people.

Bye for now
lots of love
Sara
x


My final words on GVI:

The conservation project with Global Vision International has come to an end. Whilst i have met some great people and had a good time i have to say the following about them.

It was not what it said on the tin. It was badly organised, uninspiring, and the focus was more on the dive courses than the 'scientific' side. The project was sold as a serious scientific project and ,pre-departure, it all appeared to be quite professional. Sadly it was more like an expensive 18-30's holiday. There were no natural leaders and when things went wrong it was comical to stand back and watch.

It was not as professional as many people had expected. It was a bit of a joke, an expensive one. I just feel thankful that i wasn't at one of the other bases where staff and EM's sat smoking pot together.

Nearly at the end - week nine

The base, that has been home for the last 10 weeks, in Punta Gruesa, Mahahual, Mexico.



well it is all coming to end at the conservation project, and i have to say i am looking forward to moving on. I am looking forward to being in new countries, meeting new people and having some meat in my diet.

We finally got back in the water this week, much needed as there was murder in the mangroves! We had to pass the time away somehow so we have been playing a murder game, everyone draws a person place and weapon and you have to get you victim to the place with the said weapon. It has been great fun however, i am dead - killed in the office toilet with suncream, what a way to go.....

other ways of passing the time were far more constructive. The following was all Viv´s idea however, i did endulge him. Spicing up the kitchen duty and adding a little excitement to lunch!


Other ways to pass the long windy days.........


Fliping marvellous, Heather, Jo, Sara and Andrea

Sara and Andrea, trying out a new hairstyle



John and Helen at our masked party. I will be travelling on with them for a while when we leave here on the 20th June.


I have passed my under water photography level 2 and can use my camera much better, it actually has far more functions that i had ever imagined....ooops.

Well dinner has been called, we onlyhave a few meals left, the bread has been more creative so there wil be more photos to come.

Much love

Sara

x

Weeks seven and eight

Getting ready for a night of Mayan culture, that was eventually rained off!

Weather is still bad, there was a tropical storm called Dean that left a nice mess for us to clean up! Three days later the winds are still up and i still have no lock on my door so my bed is full of sand. I am being positive and seeing it as a cheap body scrub, whilst you sleep.

So, not much diving but we did manage to get to Playa for a Maya Paddling festival, that was cancelled due to bad weather!

A photo from the opening ceremony.

Jo looking scared, Sara and Renee with some Mayan people.

So with little to do, what are we doing. Well there is a great game called speed scrable, that i am getting very good at. Also learning a few card games and sneaking off for a cheaky bottle of wine now and then!

The focus is not on conservation work but on the dive courses, which a few people are a bit cross about as we paid so much money to come on a conservation project. I was doing my Divemaster but have pulled out because i don´t feel that i am getting the best opportunities with regards to diving, because we can´t.

Anyway, heading back to base, only two weeks to go and then the blog will get a little more exciting with new countries and new experiences. Very much in the planning stage now so very excited.

bye for now

much love

Sara
x

Whaleshark in Holbox End of week six - Updated

It has taken so long to upload, i have another one and will do it as soon as possible. It was such a cool weekend. Whalesharks were top of my thing to see list so i am one very excited young lady!

Very quiet week on base, the weather is still bad so no diving. We had a party on Thursday night and then struggled to get up the next day to haul ourselves to the other side of Mexico. Jo, Amy, Renee and myself decided that a long weekend to Holbox to see the whalesharks was a good plan.

It wasn´t the mose straight forward journey, we missed most of the buses we needed to catch in order to catch the boat that we missed! However we got there and it was amazing. Holbox was beautiful. There had been no tours going out to see the whalesharks because of the weather but Sunday was a good day, taking out the small issue of only having had one and a half hours sleep.

We were out looking for about 4 hours and were about to give up when we saw one whaleshark. It was a baby, about 8 meters long. They grow up to about 28 meters long, which is just incredible. I may get the opportunity again further down into Central America. If not, despite the muggy waters, i am very very happy.

This clip is just the head but i have another with the whole body.

The long weekend was finnished of nicely by the news that i am an Aunty again. My brother and his wife Leanne had a baby girl, Ffion Eve Lowe. A little sister for my gorgeous nephew Cameron.

Will post more photos of the whalesharks and the weekend but have to dash to catch a bus back to base.

lots of love

Sara

x

FINALLY managed to get the other video uploaded. Enjoy, it is the rest of the body!




Sara and Amy feeling very happy after a long swim with the whaleshark!

Sara, Amy, Jo and Renee living it up in a transexual club on the tiny island of Holbox, hmm......!!

Just loving the hammocks

This just about sums the trip up so far, at the bottom of a glass!

Good night. This was our room at the camp site four hammocks. We only got an hours sleep but it was great!

xx

Weeks 4 and 5 in Mahuhal

There hasn´t been much happening because of a tropical storm moving in and we haven´t been able to dive much.

We did have a long weekend, which was much needed. Jo and i went to the nearest, biggest, town and checked into the most expensive hotel. Two double beds, big flat screen TV and cable, bathroom with running water and a pool outside the balcony door. A nice hot bath, Chinese,two bottles of wine, lots of chocolate and i felt like a new person!

After that we went to Xclat to meet up with Vicki and Heather, hoping to dive on the Atoll at Chinchuro. Unfortunately the weather was to bad so we dived locally, which was amazing. We saw about 300 Tarpon most of which were as big as me. The photos do not do them justice but if you look closely you will see Heathers fins in the backround. We dined luxuriously in the most amazing little restaurant. It is called Leaky Palapa. Incredible food, atmosphere and most importantly, WINE AND CHOCOLATE CAKE! If anyone finds themselves in Mexico it is well worth the trip to Xclat and the Leaky Palapa.

After the long weekend we got involved in a reef clean with the local people in Mahuhal. I didn´t actually manage to find any rubbish but it was a great dive, and nice to see it so clean.

We had another party night, jungle fever. Great night but a word of warning..... We went as jungle cat, wetsuits, tropical heat and alcohol are not a good combination for fancy dress.

Vicki, Sara and Andrea - Jungle cats

Sara, Andrea, Viv, Vicki and Jo

I am now a Rescue Diver. We finally completed the course, which was a lot of fun. Here are some photos of Vicki and i on our final rescue senario.

Had a very sad day last week. I was house sitting for one of the neighbours. This is a very exciting opportunity as they are American and even in the middle of nowhere they have managed to go totally over the top. Flat screen TV with Sky, Massive fridge and pantry stuffed full and a sofa!! Sadly one of their dogs was hit by a car by one of the other neighbours. We nursed the dog as much as we could but she later died. It was really very sad.

Enjoying the luxury of Steve´s house

I have found myself with a new skill. My friend Jo decided that she wanted to cut all her hair off! Trying desperatly to discourage her as she started to hack away with the scissors, i found myself styling away with a pair of scissors from the first aid kit, hmmmm..... Anyway, here is the after shot, there is a photo of her before the chop on the party pic.

Well that is about it, not very exciting. I have to say that i am looking forward to moving on to new countries now. Belize is next on the list and there appear to be a few people on the base that are heading that way to, the Blue Hole awaits.

Here are a few more pictures of the dolphins and the mating loggerhead turtles.

Here i am hard at it in the kitchen, trying to make chips for 25 people.

Hopefull off to snorkle with Whalesharks this weekend so should have some great photos if it all goes ahead.

lots of love

xx

Sara

A few photos

Hello

I Will do an update for weeks 4 and 5 soon. They have been funny/strange weeks. We had a long weekend, which was amazing and a much needed break. Also the weather has been bad so we have not been diving and cabin fever is setting in.

The photos are of the Dolphins and one of the turtles we saw. There are more to come, i will get the disk on Friday, along with the jungle fever party we had.

Week Three - What a week!

Unfortunatly no photos this week but there will be some to follow. One of the guys had a camera to capture a truely amazing moment.

The week began as a normal week. I passed my algae test so was feeling pretty happy. We took part in a reef clean and managed to get a few bags of rubbish. We got a certificate had a picnic and just enjoyed a day off base. We started our teaching, i was teaching adult beginners. It was good fun and we learnt ´hello, may name is Sara, I come from England, I am happy! It was good to interact with the locals, it is such a small place that we see the students when we are in town so we are really getting to know people and intergrate into the community.

So to the next three days. They say that things come in threes, they certainly did for me this week...........

We went out to dive on a new dive site, which was pretty exciting, no one knew what we would find there. It was amazing, lots of corals that we don´t see on the regular sites that we are diving and lots more fish. At about 5 mins before the end of the dive we passed over a cave and there was an 8ft Nurse Shark. She swam away so gracefully, it was so tempting to swim after her but we resisted.

The next day i was waiting to go on the second dive of the day when the returning crew raidio in to say they have found a pod of 40 dolphins and they were going to follow them for a while. We all thought that they would have gone but we raced out to the spot and they were still there. We got into the water and swam with them for a while. It was clearly mating season they were about 4 foot infront of us so we had front row seats! They swam around us and then left.

After all the excitment calmed down we went to our dive site and continued with the testing. In the middle of the dive we heard the dolphins clicking. We were looking for them but took a while to see them. All of a sudden there were three dolphins right next to us. I nearly chocked with excitment. THIS WAS AN INCREDIBLE DAY!

To top it off we saw two loggerhead turltes swimming.

The next day we were still high as kites but where do you go from here! On the way out to our dive we saw two loggerhead turtles on the surface, mating. It was an amazing site and not something that you would get to experience very often. Three brilliant days with some amazing sitings.

Tonight we have a jungle fever party to mark the end of week three. It is getting harder, living in such confined conditions. People are starting to anoy each other so i hope the combination of an amazing week of sitings and a party to let our hair down will release some steam!

Hew, one of the instructors here, had his camera when we saw the dolphins and the turtles so i hope to get a few pictures from him and post them sometime next week.

7 weeks to go. The days are going really quickly, we are so busy in the day that they just fly by.

bye for now

x
Sara