Mahahual Mexico, Week 4/5

One more week to go. Four more diving days. Now I get to survey officially, meaning I´ve surpassed the tests of identifying fish and can successfully do the survey techniques for adult and juvenile fish. I´ve been paired with Chad, a fellow American who is a great dive buddy. He finds the turtles and lobsters and various other things. The only unique creature I´ve been able to point out to him was a mantis shrimp. It certainly if a lot more fun to dive now that I can identify so many (more) fish.

We´ve settled in to our work groups, people are continually getting some sort of training. I´m part way through my dive master course, but have decided not to finish it. There´s too many important things to know to rush through it. Yes, I´ve finally decided that some things can´t be rushed. I´ve been reading my Annapolis Book of Sailing in preparation for the last part of this trip.

We have done some traveling around Mexico, the cenotes in Tulum I wrote about previously. Last weekend we took a day to go to Balacor. It is south of here, and also has cenotes. The town is on a big lake that´s not really a lake but a far in inlet of the ocean. We spent some time in a fort there. Yes a fort. It was used long ago and was a key area for pirates. Just south of town was the cenote we spent playing in all afternoon. It was fun playing like little kids, and having a Mexican meal, and a meal without rice. We´re getting more than our share of pasta and rice at the base. If I don´t watch it, I´m going to have to add more weight to my weight belt, no, that´s not an option.

We´re also teaching English to the Mexicans here so I am putting my TEFL into practice. It´s slow going yet rewarding when the faces of our students light up with understanding. We´re teaching small amounts, but difficult things all together--present, past and future tense all at once. That´s the way our instructor wants it done, so we´re doing our best. I have a group of taxi drivers that we teach at the local elementary school. Since there are only four classrooms, we meet outside, and hope the lights are on. We like teaching night because the expedition staff makes dinner. They´re such better cooks than we are, though we are getting better. Ben, the dive instructor, is really picky about his food for I was happy to hear his complements today about our cole slaw and lentil layer bake. I´m really liking lentils now, garbaonzo beans and refried beans. I never though I´d say that.

I rode the bike through ¨New¨ Mahahual today since I was near there to come to the Internet. It´s a growing cookie cutter development that´s meant for the locals. The buildings are built by hand, with trees for scaffolding, not bamboo either. Old Mahahual is changing too. I wish I had pictures when we first got here to now. Even I can see the difference. That´s progress, or is it? The cruise ships keep coming, Monday through Friday like clockwork. Too bad the building of the cruise ship pier meant dynamiting through a shark mating area. We´ve not seen one shark on any of our dives. We have seen turtles though. We were on a practice transac the other day and at our stopping point had a big loggerhead turtle to watch during our interum.

Life is good. Hope you all are well.