Well, it's been quite a long time since I wrote a new post. Mainly because, my internship was the same thing everyday, so no need to write a post about the same thing.
I have now completed my divemaster internship and... Am a divemaster!which is the first step into professional diving. It was an interesting experience, but overall a great one. I love my fellow interns, and really enjoyed our little mahahual family. Good luck to all of you in what you do, and I hope we all can reunite again!!
After the internship was over, Jamie and I went to Tulum for a couple days. Tulum is a really cute town, kind of like a mini bellingham but with less to do. During our time there, we rented snorkel gear and went snorkeling with our buddies Risky and Sven. Akumal is famous for it's beautiful beaches but most importantly because of the sea turtles coming back to their natal beach to lay their eggs every year! One trip out, we saw four turtles. I'm not talking about during a span of thirty minutes, but literally in one area. There were three big ones and one little guy. They are such beautiful creatures and they didn't even pay any attention to us. Too busy munching on seagrass.
After tulum, we spent the rest of our week in Playa del Carmen. Where we all started our journey six months ago. Lots of lounging around, beaching, pool, and beers/mojitos. It was an amazing final week in Mexico, and it was just what I needed. It's amazing how Mexico has really come to feel like home. (minus I still can't speak Spanish, oops!!)
Today marks the end of my Mexican journey, and I couldn't have asked for a better time. This has been the best six months of my life, and I've learned and experienced so much. This is a time in my life that I'll always treasure. Thanks to all the great friendships I've made here, I love you guys and I hope we all can be together again!
Remember, if things don't work out, we can always be treasure hunters! ;)
Monday, March 26, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Divemaster Training
It's been a little over three and a half weeks since the first day of my divemaster training. It's been a lot of hard work, but it's been a great learning experience.
I'm currently living in a little town called Casitas, about 5 minutes walk from Mahajual. There are 6 fellow divemaster trainees all from Punta Gruesa as well. The dive shop we work at, Dreamtime Dive Resort, is full of great staff that are full of great knowledge and a lot of staff who are actually ex-GVI's.
Most of the customers that come to Dreamtime are all cruiseship goers. We are given about four hours to bring the divers to the shop, get them out on their 2 dives (if they are certifed divers), and then take them back to the cruiseship. When they are at the dive shop, things are crazy for about 15 minutes until they go out to the boat. Other than certified divers, the other cruiseship customers choose to do a DIscover Scuba Diving experience. This isn't a certification for the divers, it's basically just a chance for people who've never dove before to try it out! It's definitely interesting watching first time divers... dive for the first time. We only go to about 15 ft or so, so they aren't that far down. When we assist the instructors, we help the divers with their buoyancy, since they are either really positively buoyant (on the surface) or negatively buoyant (touching the seafloor). Soon we'll start actually showing the divers some of the skills that they have to perform. I havent been on a DSD where the divers have really freaked out, but my friends have been on some where people are just hysteric.
Other than certifed divers and DSDs, I've also gone on an Open Water course with our main instructor David. It was a lot of fun watching someone who was in my position three months ago. It was a girl from the states, who was visiting Mahajual with her boyfriend, who was already certifed. One crazy thing that happened was the girls weights dropped about 40 feet down. David was in the front, then the two divers, and then me. I saw this long skinny thing suddenly go down into the reef and I thought it was an eel going back into its hole. I looked up at the girl and she was frantic, ascending to the surface really fast. I quickly swam to her, grabbed her and deflated my BCD all the way so we would sink. David quickly came and we sorted out her weight belt and everything was okay again, but boy, was the a scary experience.
This is just a little glimmer of the life I'm living. I can't believe there is currently a snowstorm back at home and I'm sitting out in front of my house with my friends in shorts and a tanktop. I also can't believe that I've been here for almost four months! Wow has time really gone fast. We should be certifed Divemasters in about 4 weeks. I might have another update before then, or maybe I'll update after I'm certifed. Either way, heres what I'm up to!
I'm currently living in a little town called Casitas, about 5 minutes walk from Mahajual. There are 6 fellow divemaster trainees all from Punta Gruesa as well. The dive shop we work at, Dreamtime Dive Resort, is full of great staff that are full of great knowledge and a lot of staff who are actually ex-GVI's.
Most of the customers that come to Dreamtime are all cruiseship goers. We are given about four hours to bring the divers to the shop, get them out on their 2 dives (if they are certifed divers), and then take them back to the cruiseship. When they are at the dive shop, things are crazy for about 15 minutes until they go out to the boat. Other than certified divers, the other cruiseship customers choose to do a DIscover Scuba Diving experience. This isn't a certification for the divers, it's basically just a chance for people who've never dove before to try it out! It's definitely interesting watching first time divers... dive for the first time. We only go to about 15 ft or so, so they aren't that far down. When we assist the instructors, we help the divers with their buoyancy, since they are either really positively buoyant (on the surface) or negatively buoyant (touching the seafloor). Soon we'll start actually showing the divers some of the skills that they have to perform. I havent been on a DSD where the divers have really freaked out, but my friends have been on some where people are just hysteric.
Other than certifed divers and DSDs, I've also gone on an Open Water course with our main instructor David. It was a lot of fun watching someone who was in my position three months ago. It was a girl from the states, who was visiting Mahajual with her boyfriend, who was already certifed. One crazy thing that happened was the girls weights dropped about 40 feet down. David was in the front, then the two divers, and then me. I saw this long skinny thing suddenly go down into the reef and I thought it was an eel going back into its hole. I looked up at the girl and she was frantic, ascending to the surface really fast. I quickly swam to her, grabbed her and deflated my BCD all the way so we would sink. David quickly came and we sorted out her weight belt and everything was okay again, but boy, was the a scary experience.
This is just a little glimmer of the life I'm living. I can't believe there is currently a snowstorm back at home and I'm sitting out in front of my house with my friends in shorts and a tanktop. I also can't believe that I've been here for almost four months! Wow has time really gone fast. We should be certifed Divemasters in about 4 weeks. I might have another update before then, or maybe I'll update after I'm certifed. Either way, heres what I'm up to!
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