A day at base
My day at the base, where all the volunteers reside, normally starts at 6am where I leave my bunk-bed and head to the palapa. The palapa is our chill-out hut facing the Caribbean sea and ideal to observe sunrise quietly. I spend the first 30 minutes of the day watching sunrise while I do my Qi Chong exercises. By this time the sun would have detached from the horizon lighting up the sky while the moon and the stars gradually fade away. I will then head to the kitchen to make my own breakfast. My breakfast consist of:
2 sliced bananas
4 spoons of organic oats
6 whole organic almonds
1 spoon of organic honey
1 spoon of Spirulina powder
1 spoon of Hemp protein powder
1 cup of almond milk.
At 7am, everybody is up and around. We all have duties to carry out in 30 minutes. All volunteers are grouped into 5 groups. Each group is assigned a specific duty every day from Monday to Friday. There are 4 different types of duties:
Kitchen - preparing breakfast, lunch, dinner and cleaning of the kitchen. Lunch and dinner are cooked by two charming jolly Mexican ladies. Breakfast can be either cereals, scrambled eggs, pancakes or porridge. Coffee is always present for breakfast. Lunch and dinner is normally Mexican food and available also for vegetarians, like me, vegans and also gluten-free. Since the climate is quite warm with an average 25 Deg Celcius daily, we drink a lot water during the day. We all walk around with our own aluminium water flasks as one can easily get dehydrated.
Boats - this group must fill in the rinsing tanks with water where we will rinse our diving gear after each dive. There are normally 3 dive waves (groups) every day. The group also needs to clean the kitting-up area, fill up the fuel tanks for the dive boat and also prepare the captain’s box together with the emergency response kit.
Grounds - this group makes sure that the grounds and the 2 mobile toilets around the base are clean and in order.
Communal - these duties will make sure that the communal areas within the base are clean and well organised.
Each Group will have a day of rest every week. During the weekend we are free to either remain at base or else leave base and go visit any other town close by. If we stay at base during the weekend, we would need to prepare our own food. Most of us leave the base in the weekend. One can go to places like Tulum (my favourite), Merida, Cancun, Playa Del Carmen, Isla Mujeres, Cozumel, Chichinitza etc. Well, Mexico is a big beautiful country and there are numerous amazing places one can visit like the Cenotes and the Mayan temples. My best weekend break so far has been when I flew over to the capital Mexico City where I indulged in local art visiting art museums. I miss my easel, canvas and the smell of oil paintings.
Breakfast is served at 730am and normally the first activities start either at 8am for 830am. There will be the first diving wave that normally has a total of 12 divers. We dive around corals every day where we undergo different types of training so we can eventually help the conservation project. The base is on the same grounds of the National Institute of Fisheries where there is a coral laboratory. In the coral lab, we daily assist them in cleaning coral fragments. The staff at the coral lab that mainly consist of biologist are full of enthusiasm and extremely friendly. They welcomed us with open arms and big smiles. Once the coral fragments reach the necessary maturity, they are implanted in the reef to gradually reinstate the number of healthy corals since it has been on a decline in recent decades due to climate change, pollution and diseases.
While a group of volunteers is diving, another group of 5 volunteers will be helping at the coral lab while others could be either studying, preparing presentations or else enjoying some free time. Each volunteer will at least dive once every day. Each dive will no longer be than 40 minutes underwater at a depth of not more than 18 metres. We reach each diving site with a boat named Shark Tale captained by our friend Alex. Normally it takes us around 15 to 20 minutes to reach each diving site. We kit-up 30 minutes before each dive and once we finalise the buddy-check we walk to the sandy beach which is only 100 metres away from the beach. Important to know that our base is in the jungle surrounded by trees, mangroves and animals. Numerous birds, reptiles and the annoying bugs. Here the mosquitoes are ruthless.
Our day finishes at 6pm with dinner which we normally have outside in our dining area unless it’s raining. Yes, here it rains too and when it rains it pours heavily. At 630pm we have the board announcement. The board basically is the timetable of activities of the following day. During this time everyone is free to make an announcements related to anything like lost items, suggestions, accomplishments, annoying behaviours etc. It is not easy to have 26 individuals coming from different backgrounds, nationalities, age, gender all under one roof.
After we finish the Board, we all place back our diving gear inside from the drying area and then everyone is free to do what he/she likes. Who stays at base, either reads a book, preparing a presentation, studying for the exams, playing card games, plays the guitar or watching a downloaded movie (we have no TV here). Others may go to Puerto Morelos village which is a 45 minute walk away. Some of us head back to the kitchen to spoil themselves with some snacks or as some call it, comfort food. We all have to be back at base not later than 11pm during which time the lights are switched off and everyone heads to bed.
The base is very basic and raw. We have showers outside next to the trees with only cold water. It is nice to have a shower while looking at birds hopping from one branch to another. No luxuries around and very little privacy. No alcohol is allowed at base and smokers are only allowed to smoke at the palapa area.
I cannot say that living at base has been an easy ride all the way. We all had our ups and downs but I met a great number of interesting people. Everyone tries the best to keep good order which is not always easy. The staff, dive masters and the dive master trainees are amazingly supportive. The common factor that keeps us together is the passion we have for the ocean and our planet. While diving we forget any difference we have had and we all have smiles on our face soon after each dive. We all share what we have seen with great enthusiasm. Every four weeks we have volunteers who leave and others who arrive. Not everyone stays for the same length. Irrespective of the length of the stay, we all make a positive impact for the good cause and leave a better ocean than when we arrive.