Thought I`d do the update a bit different this time seeing as I can`t really update you on where I have been and what I have been doing is pretty similar each day. I thought I would start by giving you an update on my diving status (I am getting good!!), then giving you an idea of my average day out here in Pez.
So I am just finishing my PADI Advanced Open Water Course. I have been on 5 adventure dives for that. They were Underwater Naturalist where we looked at fish and coral and underwater animals, Underwater Navigation where we were shown how to use an underwater cumpas, then we did The Deep Dive which was really really cool, where we went down to 30m to see if we got nitrogen narcosis (which is like being drunk) but i didn`t get it :(, we also did a boat dive (but every dive is a boat dive), and we then did Peak Performance Boyancy (which is about floating underwater) whwere we swum through hoops and did an egg and spoon race typy thing and floated with our heads down. The whole course was really really cool and good fun (appart from when i was sea sick), I still ahve to do the exam but appart from that am all set to start doing reef serveying (which is what i am here to do after all).
As for a day in the life of, well Monday to Friday we get up at about 6:00am and do chores, we do chores per hut and they are on a four day rotation so we have kitchen (which is all the cooking), grounds (racking and tolet cleaning), boat (getting the boat stuff togetehr and checking it and filling the gear wash bins with clean water) and comunual (cleaning the comunual area, sweeping, wiping tables etc.). At 6:30 we have breakfast (obviously the breakfast people usually get up before 6:00), at 7:00 we have boat push where we push the baots into the water and then at 7:30 the first two dives go out, the next two go out at 9:00 and then lunch is at 11:30 after lunch we have four more dives, two at 12:30 and two at 14:00. Usually this doesn`t all go to schedule but most people will be on one or two dives every day. We then have dinner at 18:30 and go to bed when ever we please, which is usually early. Saturday we have a fun dive in the morning and then have the afternoon off, staff cook dinner and we have a Pez Party Night, Sunday is a day off - suposedly this is to recover from diving (to get rid of the nitrogen in the boady) but for most people this ends up being to get over the drinking form the night before!!
Not everything is going to plan currently, the compresser is boken again (the thing we fill the scub tanks with) and one of our boats is also broken meaning we can only put one dive out at once so we are not all getting as many dives as usual. There is also a lot of bad weather as it is winter here and all in all I have only done 12 dives in the 3 weeks I have been here. Hopefully it will get better though, 12 dives is still a reasonible amount and i am still having fun, and learning new stuff. Have passed my fish test as I might have meantion before and now need to do underwater tests and do the fish juviniles. But have also been doing a lot of relaxing and reading, so I have been enjoying myself - it is not all work. I also had my first thanksgiving last Thursday!! We cooked (or i should say got cooked) a full thanksgiving meal, not completly authentic but it was still great and we got meat middweak which never happends as we dont have refrigeration (due to the lack of electricity) we normally only have meat on a saturday so this was a real treat!!
Saturday, 24 November 2007
Sunday, 18 November 2007
Pez Maya, Mexico
So have now been in Mexico for two weeks and I have been in Tulum and in Pez Mia (or Pez as we tend to call it).
I started in Tulum, where I did my Open Water diving course in Casa Cenote. It was beautiful and I didn`t have to deal with any sea sickness becasue it was fresh water, as calm as anything and we didn`t have to go anywhere on a boat, and on top of that the location was amazing. There were a few fish down there, and there were also some cave systems which we explored a little as well - which was really cool. I was the only one on my course, so I finished all the skills and everything pretty speadily and was able to spend quite a lot of time exploring the underwater area which was a lot of fun. Having stayed in Tulum for 4 days at the GVI base there (the GVI teaching base) I then moved down to Pez (the GVI diving base), which was about an hours drive away in a collectivo.
Pez is litterally just the GVI base on the beach, it is pretty much in the middle of no where, and has no real electricity and no running water, we make do with a generator that is usually on for two hours a day and a well with a bucket! The place we are staying in, is actually a converted set of luxury villas from the 70`s. The place was abandonded becasue of hurrican damage, and trust me - it is far from what I would call "luxury" now, it is however a v. beautiful place!! As I said it is right on the beach, the sand is lovely underfoot and we dont need to wear shoes at all. We say in bunk beds in little huts of six people, getting up at 6am to do chores everyday. Breakfast is at 6:30, boat push is at seven (pushing the boats down to the waters edge), there are then two dives, lunch is at 11:30, followed my another two dives (you normally go out on one or two or the four dives mentioned), dinner is at 6:30 and lights out is usually between 8:30 and 9:00, or whenever the Generator (or Jenny as she is called) goes out, at which point we all head to bed feeling utterly shattered. It is a very hecktic schedual, and in between diving chores and eating we have to study and obviously socialize a little!!
I started in Tulum, where I did my Open Water diving course in Casa Cenote. It was beautiful and I didn`t have to deal with any sea sickness becasue it was fresh water, as calm as anything and we didn`t have to go anywhere on a boat, and on top of that the location was amazing. There were a few fish down there, and there were also some cave systems which we explored a little as well - which was really cool. I was the only one on my course, so I finished all the skills and everything pretty speadily and was able to spend quite a lot of time exploring the underwater area which was a lot of fun. Having stayed in Tulum for 4 days at the GVI base there (the GVI teaching base) I then moved down to Pez (the GVI diving base), which was about an hours drive away in a collectivo.
Pez is litterally just the GVI base on the beach, it is pretty much in the middle of no where, and has no real electricity and no running water, we make do with a generator that is usually on for two hours a day and a well with a bucket! The place we are staying in, is actually a converted set of luxury villas from the 70`s. The place was abandonded becasue of hurrican damage, and trust me - it is far from what I would call "luxury" now, it is however a v. beautiful place!! As I said it is right on the beach, the sand is lovely underfoot and we dont need to wear shoes at all. We say in bunk beds in little huts of six people, getting up at 6am to do chores everyday. Breakfast is at 6:30, boat push is at seven (pushing the boats down to the waters edge), there are then two dives, lunch is at 11:30, followed my another two dives (you normally go out on one or two or the four dives mentioned), dinner is at 6:30 and lights out is usually between 8:30 and 9:00, or whenever the Generator (or Jenny as she is called) goes out, at which point we all head to bed feeling utterly shattered. It is a very hecktic schedual, and in between diving chores and eating we have to study and obviously socialize a little!!
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Playa del Carmen, Mexico
Blogg entries will become more scarce after this, as I start my diving project tommorw, but before we get to that I have more to tell you about Venezuala. I have the fishy wonders of Santa Fe to relate, followed by my impressions of Caracus and my sad farewell to the rest of my tour group before I hopped on the plane to Mexico!!
Santa Fe was another lovely little beach town, with not a lot to show for it appart form a few restaurants and hotels lining a very beautiful bay. The one day we spent there was spent snorkelling, along some of the local reefs. It was amazing, I saw loads of fish AND I knew what most of them were, which was prety cool!! I took my fish book along for the ride and looked the fish up afterwards to show my friends and to confirm my findings. During the day everyone kept popping their heads up out of the water and going "Amy come over here!! What is that one", "Amy, I saw a big yellow one, what is it", "Amy look at this, I think its another...", etc. was fun to be in the know!! We stopped at five different locations during the day. The first was just for dolphine spotting and we saw the largest pod of dolphines we have seen so far and it was super close as well. The second spot was for swimming over a small reef and for fish watching. The third and the fourth were small bays, with reefs along the edges - here, some of us continued to snorkel and fish spot and some relaxed in the sand. The fith and last location was a ship wreck and it was huge - it was really amazing and so close to the surface, I sooo wished I had had my underwater camera then (I bought one today, 5 days too late for that one)!! Some of us dove down for a coser look (I knew my snorkelling lessons would come in handy one day!!) It was majorly cool, coral had started growing on the wreckage and it was home to loads more fish and the structure and appearance of the sucken ship was both erry and awesome at the same time, it felt like something from a film.
Caracus was the next and also the final destination of our tour. And we did mainly erands in the day and a half we were there, rather than sight seeing. Caracus doesn`t have a brilliant reputation, so we spent most of the time in shopping malls (apparently an important part of the culture) and in internet cafes (an inportant part of my sanity whilst travelling). On our last evening we went out to a salsa club, but it was nothing like at home and not in a good way. It was very couply (so I danced only with our tour guide and not with any locals) and there also wasn`t even any impressive salsa to watch (as there always is at home), as most people slow danced the whole time.
Leaving Caracus was hard, whilst I didn`t like the city overly much, I was leaving the people rather than the place. I met some really good people on that trip and a few tears were shed before I got on the plane. The tears were short lived however, when I got bumped up to business class!! Apparently something to do with weight distribution (as if I cared about the reason!!) it was soooo cool!!!
As previously stated I am now in Mexico, in Playa del Carmen. And it is the most touristy place I have been in this trip so far! I thought some of the places we stayed at in Brazil were tourity, but on the main street in Playa del Carmen I have spotted 2 Starbucks, 2 Hargenda`s Ice Cream, 2 Burger King, 2 Subways Sandwich Shops and 1 MacDonalds!! It is a little excessive!!
Yesterday and today I have seen a lot of the city, but only really form inside the shopping malls. I have been on a spending frenzy, trying to get everything I need for diving before I start tommorow. It has been crazy. I finished at about 8pm this evening and finally I feel a little more relaxed!! I wasn`t compleatly sure I was going to find everything in time!! But all is set now and I start diving tommorow - I am so excited I have wanted to do this for so long!!!
Wish me luck!!
xxxx
Santa Fe was another lovely little beach town, with not a lot to show for it appart form a few restaurants and hotels lining a very beautiful bay. The one day we spent there was spent snorkelling, along some of the local reefs. It was amazing, I saw loads of fish AND I knew what most of them were, which was prety cool!! I took my fish book along for the ride and looked the fish up afterwards to show my friends and to confirm my findings. During the day everyone kept popping their heads up out of the water and going "Amy come over here!! What is that one", "Amy, I saw a big yellow one, what is it", "Amy look at this, I think its another...", etc. was fun to be in the know!! We stopped at five different locations during the day. The first was just for dolphine spotting and we saw the largest pod of dolphines we have seen so far and it was super close as well. The second spot was for swimming over a small reef and for fish watching. The third and the fourth were small bays, with reefs along the edges - here, some of us continued to snorkel and fish spot and some relaxed in the sand. The fith and last location was a ship wreck and it was huge - it was really amazing and so close to the surface, I sooo wished I had had my underwater camera then (I bought one today, 5 days too late for that one)!! Some of us dove down for a coser look (I knew my snorkelling lessons would come in handy one day!!) It was majorly cool, coral had started growing on the wreckage and it was home to loads more fish and the structure and appearance of the sucken ship was both erry and awesome at the same time, it felt like something from a film.
Caracus was the next and also the final destination of our tour. And we did mainly erands in the day and a half we were there, rather than sight seeing. Caracus doesn`t have a brilliant reputation, so we spent most of the time in shopping malls (apparently an important part of the culture) and in internet cafes (an inportant part of my sanity whilst travelling). On our last evening we went out to a salsa club, but it was nothing like at home and not in a good way. It was very couply (so I danced only with our tour guide and not with any locals) and there also wasn`t even any impressive salsa to watch (as there always is at home), as most people slow danced the whole time.
Leaving Caracus was hard, whilst I didn`t like the city overly much, I was leaving the people rather than the place. I met some really good people on that trip and a few tears were shed before I got on the plane. The tears were short lived however, when I got bumped up to business class!! Apparently something to do with weight distribution (as if I cared about the reason!!) it was soooo cool!!!
As previously stated I am now in Mexico, in Playa del Carmen. And it is the most touristy place I have been in this trip so far! I thought some of the places we stayed at in Brazil were tourity, but on the main street in Playa del Carmen I have spotted 2 Starbucks, 2 Hargenda`s Ice Cream, 2 Burger King, 2 Subways Sandwich Shops and 1 MacDonalds!! It is a little excessive!!
Yesterday and today I have seen a lot of the city, but only really form inside the shopping malls. I have been on a spending frenzy, trying to get everything I need for diving before I start tommorow. It has been crazy. I finished at about 8pm this evening and finally I feel a little more relaxed!! I wasn`t compleatly sure I was going to find everything in time!! But all is set now and I start diving tommorow - I am so excited I have wanted to do this for so long!!!
Wish me luck!!
xxxx
Thursday, 1 November 2007
The Gran Sabana and Angle Falls, Venezuala
Our departure from Brazil was sad and heart felt but we entered Venezuala hopeful and / becasue we went without our tour guide (he was pretty useless anyway so we were so sad he couldn`t get his visa).
We arrived in Venezuala late afternoon and people cahnged some money. Reals (Brazillian money) and dollars brought twice the offical rate when changed on the street, and Venezuala is meant to be one of the only places where it is both safe and common practise to change money on the street. Unfortunatly, curtacy of our previous tour guide unwillingness to part with information, I took only 10 real / 2.50 pounds in cash into the country). It also turns out that in Venezuala it is a pain to get money out of an ATM with a foriegn Visa, even worse than Brazil (and trust me that is saying something, Brazil wasn`t a piece of cake). So yeah even less happy with Jose (our previous tour guide) - his tip just went down again if he ever comes back.
Anyways, the following day our new tour leader (Terry) arrived bright and early, before the start of our tour of the Gran Sabana. He introduced himself, made us vote on night-bus / day-bus and then when we chose night-bus made us do a mad packing sess (to vacate our hotel rooms) before leaving for the 9am tour (needless to say we didn`t quite manage to leave at 9am).
The tour was pretty awesome though. We saw three different water falls which were all gorgeous, no. one were a set of pretty falls that were floored with a red semi precious stone, no. two we almost walked behind (but then another tour agency told us off half way there), and no. three was where we went swimming and went and sat under the spray of the falls (it was so cool). We saw a small local village at one of the falls, and at another village where we ate a late lunch and bough handicrafts. We walked and drove through some gorgeous scenery through out the day, both between water falls and between villages, there were around 25 table top mountains making the surounding area unique and facinatingly beautiful. We found out about the trees of life, so called becasue the people use them to make the roofs for thier houses, the hammoks they sleep in, the juice they drink, the handi crafts they sell, and even the bread they eat.
Our driver had his foot to the floor trying to get back form the tour in time for us to jump on the night bus to Bolivar. The day following the night bus was spent rushing round all the banks in Bolivar (trying to get money together in order to go to Angle Falls), and reading my new Marrian Keyes book (it is pretty good).
Before I before beginning the narration of the Angel Fall epic let me vent my fustration at my lack of American dollars in the corrupt-ness of Venezuala. In Venezuala they cannot get dollars easily so, unfortunatly for the rest of the world, they LOVE them. My tour of Angel Falls cost me 200 pounds, it cost my freind 250 dollars. In case you are unfamiliar with the current exchange rate and do not understand how shit this is (I apologise for my laguage but it is) let me explain: currently, 1 pound is worth 2.05 dollars - i.e. my friend paid in dollars and thus spend on 125 pounds, whilst I spent 200 pounds. CORRUPTION & ANOYMENT.
Anyways back to more interesting and fun stuff - Angel Falls was pretty amazing. It was a three day trip and the National Park is in the middle of nowhere and is only accessible by plane, so we flew in on a cute little six seater plane. The plane ride in itself was pretty amazing, flying over acers and acers of national park and the national park in Venezuala (also including the Gran Sabana) is apparently bigger than Belgum. On arrival we almost imediatly set off on our Angle Falls excursion. This included a five hour boat ride on a tiny boat, sitting on hard, wooden, sore-bum-inducing seats with no backs. Needless to say it was an uncomfortable ride, fortunatly for us we had a lot of distractions including: more amazing scenery, a lot of splash and some scary rapids that our guides expertly navigated. On arrival at the falls we had a good view from the boat but we also hiked a trail to take us closed to the base of the falls and it was pretty impressive from close up. On the way back down this little trail the heavans opened on us and we got drenched, by the time we got back to our camp at the base of the falls it was pitch black and still tipping it down. We ate a gorgeous BBQ chicken dinner and settled down to sleep in our hammoks at a frightfully early hour (9:30pm) but we were all straight to sleep as we were pretty shattered. On the second day I awoke to the sight of the falls from my hammok, it was amazing. Having arrived in the dark the night before, I had no idea what I was going to see when I woke up the next day, but I had by no means expected that view from my bed!! We had an early breakfast and took the boat back arriving in time for lunch and our second tour. The second tour wasn`t quite as hard core and only involved 20 mins boat (thank the lord for saving our sore bums) and a couple of hours walking, but we got to see five or six more water falls and got to walk behind one of them, which was super cool. We slep the second night at the logde in Canimer, the village we landed in when we flew in. On the third morning we wandered the village looking at local handi crafts, and got the plane back in the early afternoon, arriving back in Bolivar at about 3pm. It was an amazing three days.
We arrived in Venezuala late afternoon and people cahnged some money. Reals (Brazillian money) and dollars brought twice the offical rate when changed on the street, and Venezuala is meant to be one of the only places where it is both safe and common practise to change money on the street. Unfortunatly, curtacy of our previous tour guide unwillingness to part with information, I took only 10 real / 2.50 pounds in cash into the country). It also turns out that in Venezuala it is a pain to get money out of an ATM with a foriegn Visa, even worse than Brazil (and trust me that is saying something, Brazil wasn`t a piece of cake). So yeah even less happy with Jose (our previous tour guide) - his tip just went down again if he ever comes back.
Anyways, the following day our new tour leader (Terry) arrived bright and early, before the start of our tour of the Gran Sabana. He introduced himself, made us vote on night-bus / day-bus and then when we chose night-bus made us do a mad packing sess (to vacate our hotel rooms) before leaving for the 9am tour (needless to say we didn`t quite manage to leave at 9am).
The tour was pretty awesome though. We saw three different water falls which were all gorgeous, no. one were a set of pretty falls that were floored with a red semi precious stone, no. two we almost walked behind (but then another tour agency told us off half way there), and no. three was where we went swimming and went and sat under the spray of the falls (it was so cool). We saw a small local village at one of the falls, and at another village where we ate a late lunch and bough handicrafts. We walked and drove through some gorgeous scenery through out the day, both between water falls and between villages, there were around 25 table top mountains making the surounding area unique and facinatingly beautiful. We found out about the trees of life, so called becasue the people use them to make the roofs for thier houses, the hammoks they sleep in, the juice they drink, the handi crafts they sell, and even the bread they eat.
Our driver had his foot to the floor trying to get back form the tour in time for us to jump on the night bus to Bolivar. The day following the night bus was spent rushing round all the banks in Bolivar (trying to get money together in order to go to Angle Falls), and reading my new Marrian Keyes book (it is pretty good).
Before I before beginning the narration of the Angel Fall epic let me vent my fustration at my lack of American dollars in the corrupt-ness of Venezuala. In Venezuala they cannot get dollars easily so, unfortunatly for the rest of the world, they LOVE them. My tour of Angel Falls cost me 200 pounds, it cost my freind 250 dollars. In case you are unfamiliar with the current exchange rate and do not understand how shit this is (I apologise for my laguage but it is) let me explain: currently, 1 pound is worth 2.05 dollars - i.e. my friend paid in dollars and thus spend on 125 pounds, whilst I spent 200 pounds. CORRUPTION & ANOYMENT.
Anyways back to more interesting and fun stuff - Angel Falls was pretty amazing. It was a three day trip and the National Park is in the middle of nowhere and is only accessible by plane, so we flew in on a cute little six seater plane. The plane ride in itself was pretty amazing, flying over acers and acers of national park and the national park in Venezuala (also including the Gran Sabana) is apparently bigger than Belgum. On arrival we almost imediatly set off on our Angle Falls excursion. This included a five hour boat ride on a tiny boat, sitting on hard, wooden, sore-bum-inducing seats with no backs. Needless to say it was an uncomfortable ride, fortunatly for us we had a lot of distractions including: more amazing scenery, a lot of splash and some scary rapids that our guides expertly navigated. On arrival at the falls we had a good view from the boat but we also hiked a trail to take us closed to the base of the falls and it was pretty impressive from close up. On the way back down this little trail the heavans opened on us and we got drenched, by the time we got back to our camp at the base of the falls it was pitch black and still tipping it down. We ate a gorgeous BBQ chicken dinner and settled down to sleep in our hammoks at a frightfully early hour (9:30pm) but we were all straight to sleep as we were pretty shattered. On the second day I awoke to the sight of the falls from my hammok, it was amazing. Having arrived in the dark the night before, I had no idea what I was going to see when I woke up the next day, but I had by no means expected that view from my bed!! We had an early breakfast and took the boat back arriving in time for lunch and our second tour. The second tour wasn`t quite as hard core and only involved 20 mins boat (thank the lord for saving our sore bums) and a couple of hours walking, but we got to see five or six more water falls and got to walk behind one of them, which was super cool. We slep the second night at the logde in Canimer, the village we landed in when we flew in. On the third morning we wandered the village looking at local handi crafts, and got the plane back in the early afternoon, arriving back in Bolivar at about 3pm. It was an amazing three days.
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