November 19, 2010

Punta Gruesa!!!!

Hello all!!
So sorry it has been so long since I have blogged.  Internet is not available on base and I do not go into town all that often so when I do most of my time is spent talking to my mother and friends ... but mostly my mom, she worries. 
So week 1 was pretty intense.  We arrived at our base which is a 40 min drive from the nearest town, Mahahual.  The base consists of a communal area called our Palapa, named because of the structure and roof made from strong leaves.  This is were we have meetings, eat meals, hangout, and .. well yeah its the communal area.  There are 4 huts which have no floors (meaning its all sand), 4 bunk beds and logs for walls and leaves for roofs.  But they are really cozy and I actually love living in them.  We learned about duties we would do and projects to complete and responsibilities around base.  There are 4 rota groups which have duties every morning at 6am.  We either rake the sand to reduce the sandflies, kit up the boats for the day and clean the dive shop, clean the palapa, or cook the meals for the day.  Every day is pretty busy.  Usually we go diving twice a day and each dive takes up about 2 hours even though most dives are only 40 min long, it takes a while to kit up and get on the boats and then drive to the sites.  We also have to always have someone on the radio when the boats are out and we have to fill tanks with a compressor.  The base is literally on the water, I walk outside my hut to palm trees, clear water, and the sun rising every day,  it is beautiful and relaxing.  I do get time to lay in a hammock and read a book or take a nap but not very often so it is really special when I get to do that.  Our meals consist of mostly pasta, rice, lentils, beans, peppers, carrotts, tomatoes, potatos, bananas and apples.  Sometimes we get pineapple or other fruit and veg and on friday nights we get MEAT!!! its great!!! Most mornings we have to eat porrige, but i put bananas and peanut butter in mine in order to get it down.  We also get cereal, eggs, and pancakes each once a week for breakfast.  People have fallen in love with my cooking, especially my "peanut saute" ... fried rice with a peanut sauce.  My kitchen group has been voted the best because we make pizza and other things that people don´t feel like putting the effort into doing.  We get friday afternoon and saturdays off to do what we please.  Most of the time people come to Mahahual to get on the internet and have a few drinks.  This is a town where cruise ships stop off but it just a mile long strip of local food and shops and everyone that works here lives in a town 5 min away called cassitas (little houses).  It is good to get away sometimes but I usually just come to town every other weekend.  There are a mix of people from the UK, America, Australia, and Canada here.  We did have a 5 weeker from Spain and one from Germany but they are gone now.  I will have a two week break starting on the 10th of december and then I will be in Cozumel for the next 12 weeks getting my Dive Masters and working at a dive shop.  The weather is bad today and there is only one internet store open with 3 computers and everyone is waiting to get on, so I will update more later on.  Promise. 
Miss and love you all!!!!