Mahajual

So, after much drama over placements for our internship, I finally can happily
say that I'll be in majahual for the next three months! I'll be interning with
four of my really good friends and couldn't be more excited for the next chapter
in my life. Which reminds me! If anyone would like to send me a care package, I
would love it!!

In other news, we have less than two weeks left in punta
gruesa and it's a little bitter sweet. We found out last week that GVI Punta
Gruesa will no longer be after this phase. It's pretty much because, although my
phase is one of the biggest yet, not many people are signing up for GVI Mexico.
It sucks a lot. They're thinking about making a program in Belize, but I'm sure
that program will be twice as much as in Mexico. We're all trying to make the
most of the next few weeks.

After PG, im planning on traveling to Belize and diving the Blue Hole, then going to Guatemala and hopefully skydiving! After that I'm going to go back to Playa del Carmen and hang out. :)Last night was the night when staff cooks and we requested a Thanksgiving dinner. Pretty funny considering there is a really small amount of Americans on base. The dinner was a little different from real Thanksgiving, but it was still delicious! It was 3 hours late, just like normal Thanksgiving dinner though. Haha. Well this marks probably the last update until I leave PG. Hope you all are doing great!

PS. I was walking in the shallows yesterday, and some how managed to get stung by a jellyfish. I didnt see it, but it must have been huge because it´s tentacle wrapped around my calf. Pretty gnarly!

March

So, it´s been awhile since I´ve updated you all. I´m not really sure what the last thing I wrote about was, but here is what I´ve been up to recently.

We had our four day weekend last weekend and it was probably the best weekend yet! We got to leave early on Thursday, due to bad conditions on the water, but it worked out to our benefit. We spent our first night in Tulum, which was a blast. I´m hoping to go back soon, because Tulum is supposed to have one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. We all stayed in a cute little hostel that made us breakfast in the morning, and then went off to go dive the cenotes. For those of you who don´t know what a cenote is, well it´s basically a cavern. We did two cavern dives, and they were INCREDIBLE. So much fun. The last dive we did was called the temple of doom, and to enter we had to walk a little ways in the jungle and then jump 10 feet down into a hole of water. It was so much fun. What made this dive the best though, was going through a halocline. It was a little freaky, because you can´t really see anything do to the mixing of salt and fresh water, but it was still a really cool experience.

After the dives, we made our way to Playa del Carmen and hung out there for a night. Playa is a growing city, that is estimated to one day be as big as Cancun. Playa is definitely one of my favorite places, full of good food and entertainment.

The next day we took a ferry to Cozumel. We didn´t dive, unfortunately, but one day I´ll be back to dive it. Its supposed to be one of the best dives in the world. Cozumel is a cute little island, but it´s ridiculously touristy. It´s unfortunate that the Caribbean islands have to be like that. It seems like every second someone was haggling me for my money. :/

After Cozumel, we made our way back to Playa, and then back to the grind of base camp. I dove 5 times this week, and it feels great to finally be back in the diving routine. The reef out here is incredible, and it seems like every dive I do, I see something better and better. One of the dives this week, I got to watch one of the staff members kill a lionfish. That was awesome! We even did a lionfish dissection. You all know I loved that. :)

In more exciting news, dun dun dunnnnn, I´m staying in Mexico for another 3 months! I´ll be working in a dive shop to get my Dive Masters. Yup, that´s right. You won´t see me until March. I can´t believe this is happening, but I couldn´t be more excited! It´s such a great opportunity that I couldn´t let pass me by for anything. I´ll either be in Mahajual (the closest town to me now) Cozumel, or another city I can´t spell at all (sounds like ish-ka-lack).

Seems like my life couldn´t get any better :)