Once a week a group of four volunteers from the Pez Maya marine conservation basecamp, usually one staff member and three volunteers to be exact, make the more than hour long journey south to a small village called Punta Allen, where they spend the day making a difference in the community. The dirt road leading from Tulum to Pez Maya is already pretty hazardous, but it deteriorates even more between Pez Maya and Punta Allen, so the drive is very slow and full of twists and turns to avoid the massive potholes. I visited Punta Allen twice in the 10 weeks I spent with GVI. We would wake up at around 5:30AM to get on our way and arrive around 7AM, even though it's only about 22 miles away. The town is the largest in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere, which isn't saying much considering it only has around 500 residents.  All of the roads are still dirt, the electricity for the town is run completely off of generator power, so for most of the day there is no electricity in the town, and it serves only a meager tourist market of adventures who are able to traverse the rough-trod roads hours from the nearest tourist mecca of Tulum. The towns main source of income was once based in agriculture, harvesting coconuts, until disease wiped out most of their tree crops sometime in the 1950's. Many people left the village around that time, but the ones who stayed built a new life and trade in fishing and lobstering. Lobstering is a big deal in the town now, and only certain people are licensed to do it. These are pretty much the original families, as no new licenses are issued, and the current licenses can only be passed from one generation to the next within the family. Even more recently, a small tourism market has blossomed in the tiny fishing village, and they still seem to be working through the growing pains of this new market. Men who once made a small living fishing are now using their little boats to run tours through the mangroves. There is plenty to see, from manatees, crocodiles, and dolphins, to ancient Mayan ruins. 
Upon arrival we would settle in at a small roadside restaurant, called Lucy's, for a breakfast of cereal and coffee. We would also put in our lunch order with the super friendly Lucy, who makes the most delicious quesadillas and empanadas I've ever tasted. We also would normally put in an even larger take away order for dinner, so we could bring some back for the others. Letting her know in the morning helped her out since she gets busy throughout the day and she only works out of a small home kitchen with a few family members to help her. 
Once that was all settled the group headed off to whatever activity we had planned for the day. Our activities included visiting local schools from kindergarten to high school to teach children about marine life and environmental issues, meetings with town officials, town/beach cleans, or meeting with local tour guides to make sure their operations are environmentally responsible, that they know why this is so important to both the environment and their business, and that they are able to communicate this message to their customers. Everything we do tends to center some way around environmental impact.  
With the kindergarten and primary school kids we teach them about the ocean and marine life with fun games. When it comes to the older students we try to get them thinking more along the lines on conservation. We let them watch videos and conduct discussions. The struggle for me was definitely the language barrier. Most students did not speak English, and my very basic Spanish skills didn't go very far, so I found it hard to communicate.  The volunteers that did the best on these trips were those that could speak Spanish at some level. Some students had better English skills than others, but the students learn from non-native English speaking teachers or their parents. Still those few times I was able to communicate with a teacher or student it was such a triumphant moment for us both, even if it was as simple as "How old are you?" "I am 32!" That was actually a question I got quite often.
Other days we would spend time with the local tour guides. As I mentioned, tourism is still a very new concept to them, and so is conservation. They are finally learning that they can make a good living from their natural surroundings, and the only way to ensure they can keep doing this is to protect the environment and marine creatures that lure tourists to their tiny, way off the beaten path, village. We would teach them simple English phrases such as, "Do not stand on the reef." or, "Do not stand when the boat is moving." Just little things to help their business run more smoothly and environmentally sound. We would also give them facts and presentations on marine life so they can spread the correct knowledge to visitors. And we helped them organize marine clean-ups and gave them the tools to be able to continue these initiatives on their own in the future. They were incredibly open to our recommendations and ideas, and were all so friendly and grateful for our assistance. Some even offered to give us rides in their boat from Pez Maya to Punta Allen and back again, which was much more enjoyable than the bumpy roads.
I wish I could have spent more time in Punta Allen, but at the end of the day I was there for the diving, and so that is what I chose to spend my time doing. There were only 3 spots open to go to Punta Allen each week and more than enough volunteers eager to fill them, so I didn't feel too bad about staying behind most weeks.  The couple of times I did go was a lot of fun though, and eye-opening for sure. I really loved and appreciated the experience provided by GVI.

We taught the kindergarten class about whale sharks!

These kids from primary school have a blind classmate, so we had them draw different animals and then use a needle to poke holes around the outline so that their classmate could use them to learn animals with us.

I took two separate trips to Cozumel during my time in Mexico.  It was a short ferry ride from Playa del Carmen, maybe 45 mins, for about $15 round trip. The island had a really cool vibe the moment we stepped off the ferry. I wouldn't have minded an extended stay there. We took a long walk along the shore line to a park and marina the first day there. It was beautiful and had a friendly, local feel to it. Even the touristy part of the island, which was small park surrounded by hotels and restaurants just outside of the ferry terminal, wasn't over the top. There just seemed to be a laid-back vibe to the whole island. Each of the times we went we stayed in a hostel called Hostelito, which was within walking distance of the ferry port, and next door to a killer burger place- YUM! It had both shared accommodation with about 20 beds, which we stayed in the first time, and private rooms where we stayed the second time. The dorm was nice, it was just a bit noisy from a bar across the street. The private rooms were a bit quieter, and with 4 of us sharing a room with 2 double beds it was more than fair priced. The hostel also had a killer roof top with loungers and hammocks, and the wifi worked great. But, we weren't just there for the burgers and accommodations, we had heard great things about the diving on the island and we wanted to give it a go.  

​In true fashion, Ida, from Norway, was off immediately to find us the best diving deal. Unfortunately, on the first go around her choice ended up not so great. We went with a group called Cosumal (cant remember but it was a weird spelling on Cozumel) Divers. Our DM was crazy and definitely was far from following safe diving protocols. Our rental equipment was in such poor condition that one of our group decided not to even go on our 2nd dive because he didn't feel safe. The first dive was to a wreck, and it went pretty well, except that we penetrated the wreck even though no one aside from myself were trained to do so.  The DM insisted that there were enough openings to get out so it wasn't an issue. I knew better so I stayed behind the group to make sure everyone got out safely.  There was definitely a point when the back half of the group got lost and had to backtrack out of the wreck. The next dive was meant to be a drift dive at a wall. The DM knew that we had two inexperienced divers in our group, they had just finished their advanced open water and had about 10 dives under their belts. He gets in the water and immediately drops down to 30m, leaving the two newbies (one was having equalization issues) drifting near the top. I saw what was happening so I pretty much stayed with them, but by the time we got down we were far ahead of the rest of the group. I also watched everyones no deco time and was telling them when to ascend. The wall was more of a gentle slope and aside from some sponges, completely bare and devoid of color or life. The drift lasted for about 10 mins and then we spent another 10 over a sandy bottom with slabs of concrete and very little signs of life. Needless to say, the two dives didn't come close to living up to the tales we had heard of gorgeous reefs teeming with life and turtles everywhere. 

​So, we decided several weeks later to give the island and it's diving one more go.  This time we planned our dives with two different reputable companies, slightly more expensive, but worth every penny.  The first night in town we planned a night dive with Blue Magic Scuba. We weren't allowed to night dive at Pez Maya, so it had been a while and I was really excited - I love night diving! Cozumel did not disappoint this time around. The night dive was filled with free swimming eels, sting rays, lobster, and my very first octopus! Several octopus in fact :) I'm disappointed that I didn't bring my camera.  The next day we did two more day dives with Dive Bros Unlimited. They were another great company, lots of fun, and they took us to a couple of killer dive sites with lots to see:Turtles, seahorse, barracuda, rainbow parrot fish and more.  The DM's on all 3 of our dives this time around were amazing, responsible and fun.  I'm glad that we gave the island and it's diving another chance, it was definitely worth it.

Almost every weekend while I was at Pez Maya, our little group would escape basecamp to go exploring around the region. This post is going to encompass a couple of trips in which we checked out some ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization. Both ruins were in or around the modern small city of Tulum.

Coba is an ancient Mayan city just outside of Tulum. It was once one of the most powerful Mayan cities in the Yucatan, now reduced to ruin by time and nature, but it is certainly an interesting area to explore. Some people rent bikes to get around the ruins, but our group felt more than comfortable walking around. In fact, I think it would have been much more difficult on a bike, as the roads were not paved and the area was hilly. The main attraction on the site is Nohoch Mul, a giant Mayan pyramid, one of the only of it's size and kind that you can still climb to the top of.  The steps leading to the top were very steep, not meant for someone afraid of heights. By the time you reach the top you are high above even the tallest trees, and you can see for miles in any direction.  Other smaller, but no less interesting ruins surround this giant spectacle, including a game court where opposing teams would try to get a rubber ball through stone hoops.  It's written that the losing team would sometimes be sacrificed. Losing the game could mean losing your head! Just imagine playing a game with those kind of stakes!  This little outing only took about a half a day, and we did it during the same weekend that we went diving in the cenotes. My only tip here is not to plan it in the middle of the day because it does get super hot. We were lucky enough to have an awesome taxi driver that took us to get drinks and snacks on our way there, and had a cooler of ice for us to leave them in.  He waited around for us while we explored the ruins so we had nice cold drinks to come back to in the end. It was very resonablely priced too, but that was probably because we had such a large group. Just outside of the site there are a few restaurants that serve really yummy food and ice cold drinks. It's a little over priced of course, but what do you expect at a tourist attraction.

The ancient city of Tulum is interesting for many reasons. First it is the only Mayan city remaining on a coast line. It was once a seaport dealing mainly in the trade of turquoise and jade.  It is also the only ancient Mayan city which was fortified by a wall. The ruins are beautifully preserved, reminiscent of what you may see in Europe and Rome, with ruins scattered among rolling green hills, crumbling ancient pillars, and other buildings standing nearly whole. Surprisingly, the ruins are not terribly crowded as you may think.  Most people tend to simply flock to the turquoise beach found right on the site.  Our group explored around the ruins first, and then did just that.