Leaving Mexico! - Trip day 16/17

The final leg of the trip. For the last time we had a walk around the town of Akumal where we were staying and took in all that we had experienced there.

 

And just like that it was time to make our way home. The coach picked us up around 11 am and took us straight to the airport. When we got there we still had a couple hours until our first flight from Cancun to JFK so we just went around some shops and got some last minute items. Mostly treats. The first flight went alright although it was a bit slow and where the plane had 1 TV for every 10 rows you basically had to put up with what's on, on a TV 5 metres away and 10 inches wide or you had nothing.

(Landing at JFK)

The second flight wasn't until around 11pm from JFK back to Heathrow. Some people had a cheeky McDonald's and others, including me had nothing. Once we boarded the flight and took off it was around midnight so all we wanted to do was sleep. The crew had other ideas though. At around 1 am they decided to bring around dinner. A curry of all things. It was nice but not something to eat on a plane at 1am. Arrival was safe and we quickly collected our bags but due to the times of the National Express, we had to wait a couple hours until we could leave the airport. The rest of the journey though was alright. We had a nap on the coach on the way to the ferry and once we got on that ferry, we knew we were home. My parents and my brother were there waiting for me. I had an awesome time but it was so nice to be home!

(Final flight home)

 

Toodles for now.

Lionfish dissection -Trip Day 14

I woke up at 6.30 after sleeping for 10.5 hours! Cornflakes today with a lecture on threats to a coral reef and then 9 am was our Open Water Diver Theory test. You needed 38 out of 50 to pass and I got 46 so I definitely passed! I went and bought some gift items then headed to the beach for the rest of the morning.

Lunch was hot dogs and egg and potato salads. I started to pack a few items which I knew I didn't need any longer on this trip and then made my way back to the dive centre for the last dive to complete the practical side of the divers course. We had to take our mask off fully an put it back on again, lower and only float up and down by natural breathing and then use a compass to navigate our way through the ocean. Once that was done, we did a bit of a fun dive since we had plenty of air left in our tanks and saw a turtle and a lionfish. Then at our 5 metre stop we all held hands and did the Mexican wave to celebrate finishing the course.

After our dinner of shepherds pie and veg we had a lecture and talk on lionfish and Rachael did a lionfish dissection demonstration to see how much it has eaten, whether it's male or female etc. It was kind of gross but cool at the same time.

 

It also happened to be one guys birthday so we got to have ice cream cake for his birthday which he didn't know about. I videoed his reaction whilst Rachael brought the cake out.

 

It was then an early night for me. I'm beginning to become old.

Toodles for now.

Scuba Diving - Trip Day 13

Breakfast today was chocolate cheerios, a lecture on mangroves and seagrass, then theory classes for our dive theory test. Our final hotel pool session which for me started with an incident which was pretty funny and just something I would do. I started to dive into the water without putting the regulator in my mouth which since 2 days ago it being weird to breathe underwater, I am no comfortable to think I can breathe without one! I choked. It was funny but luckily only Steve and Analie knew it happened so I wasn't too embarrassed.

Nachos and salsa with cheese flatbreads for lunch, then onto dive 3 in the open water. This one was at motorcycle reef (I've added a map so you can see where these places I'm talking about are.) and funnily enough, there is an actual motorcycle at the bottom!

We saw a blue parrotfish, another ray, a lobster and a trumpet fish. It was so cool and this time my ears weren't so bad with descending and I managed to get to the bottom easier and faster. Alex is awesome. Every time we see each other (not just when we are diving together but around town) he goes 'Hey Katie, My Buddy!' in his Italian bad man accent.  (That's Alex below)

We did some exercises at the surface then boarded the boat. This driver was different to the one we had before but it was ok because this one was a fast driver and that made it more enjoyable. It was great. We unloaded and disassembled our equipment and marked of our log books.

I had a shower in one of the outer showers today not the one in our room. Mainly because there were 8 of us trying to use the one shower. It was lovely. I had a relaxing time ready up on the Padi information ahead of our test. Dinner was mac 'n' cheese with garlic bread and another lecture on how to survey a coral reef then I went to bed by 8. I was so tired. I never thought I would willingly go to bed that early!

Toodles for now.

Trip Day 10

It was an early start as our coach was leaving at 7.30am for Akumal. We had to empty our tent, sweep it and mop it before taking a group picture in front of the sign. We said our goodbyes and left Calakmul for probably the last time. The coach on the way back up north was the same as the one we rode down on. Comfy seats, apparently was used for a baseball team.

 

The journey was long since Akumal wasn't too far from Cancun and it took us 7 hours to get between Cancun and Calakmul last week. We stopped again at that little shop on the way for some snacks. These Doritos are really good by the way.

 

 

 

When we arrived we got a tour of the facilities and our room. A room which was filled with 6 bunk beds and 1 bathroom. Then we had lunch. It was pizza. I loved the food the local village made for us but to have some normal food was incredible!

After lunch we had a couple hours free so we headed to the beach. It was about a 3 minute walk and it was well worth the wait. We hadn't been given our snorkels yet but we still went into the water and found some turtles! It was the best feeling ever. One stuck its head out of the water right in front of me.

For dinner we had spaghetti and garlic bread. Once again it was normal food. Afterwards we went down the road to this little ice cream place and had some rocky road ice cream. Sat on the beach for a little bit before it shut. The beaches shut at a certain time to let the turtles come onto the shore to lay their eggs. We moved to the bar/restaurant that was by the beach for a while. They didn't seem to care about the age limits for drinking. Everyone had a drink anyway. The beer was called Sol. Never heard of that one before, it must be a Mexican thing.

Toodles for now.


Trip Day 8

I can't believe I have survived a whole week! It was a habitat day today. We walked all the way down to transect 1 to a 20 by 20 metre plot to do some touch poles and measure trees. Once we did that we walked back via the old transect 3 and up the road. You could say I was a little sweaty! I needed a shower by this point since I didn't have one yesterday and as I did I rinsed a couple of my tops at the same time. A sit on the sofas in the museum with my book before lunch, which was delicious. Spicy minced meat and carrots with rice and hibiscus water.

I had a free afternoon and at first I laid in a hammock which Mira lent to me then I ventured to the science room because it was quiet, played some cards, did some puzzles and chatted with Jamie the habitat guy and Josh - part of the monkey team. Dinner arrived but we didn't notice. Deep in conversation. We noticed when a large queue began to form out of the kitchen. Vegetable soup and pineapple juice AND finally they brought back some bananas. We had some on the first day which were lush but hadn't seen them since.

Today was Katie and Etienne's birthdays and they had an angry bird piñata full of sweets. Which was a nice 'dessert' since we haven't really had any treats since being here.

We had a late night bat session as well and luckily we managed to get 3 and one of them were pregnant! Considering the last bat night got cancelled. I got a surprise when Veronica released the bat and it flew straight into me! At KM27 (where we were for these bats) the radio signal isn't very good and we couldn't get through to base camp since we finished our research early. The truck was coming to get us at midnight anyway but as we were early we ended up laying in the road for 45 minutes. (As I think back on that now, all the creepy crawlies that could've been on us and we didn't have a clue. Imagine the tarantulas!!) The sky was incredible though. There was a gap in the trees above us and with everything being pitch black the stars lit up so bright. There was a perfect view of the Milky Way! Best thing I've ever seen!

 

 

Toodles for now.

Lazy Day - Trip Day 6

I woke up to a high pitched noise but the rain from last night had finally stopped. It's the 1st of August and our first activity was herpetofauna surveys on transects 1 and 2 using pitfall traps. We didn't have any herps but there were a few spiders in one of the pitfall traps. Eww.

 

 

It was probably the hottest day of the week so far since I was sweating buckets and smelling of crap after only an hour. We had some time before the next lecture so I went and got some Pringles. The lecture we had lasted just over an hour in the steamy hot lecture room/dining room and I honestly kept falling asleep. I don't even remember what this lecture was about. Oops. We had another break before lunch so I sat in the museum on the sofa for a while because even though it is still hot in there, it is slightly cooler than anywhere else.

Lunch today was lentil soup and hibiscus water. I had a completely free afternoon so I just hung out in a hammock in the science room and read my book whilst waiting for dinner. Egg fried rice with carrot bits mixed in with what Hannah called 'still lemonade'. Purely just lemon juice.

 

We were supposed to be going to do a bat project but it had been raining and bats can die from the cold so that was postponed. I went for a shower in the dark with spiders and a huge butterfly instead. Bit of a lazy day for me this one but should pick up tomorrow.

 

Toodles for now.

Trip Day 5

Up at 5 for another session of birds. This one was at a place they called KM27 so we had to take a truck ride. Mexico: the place where health and safety seemed to be out the window and I find myself sitting in the back of a pickup truck.

This session of birds was more successful than the last. We had 2 hummingbirds, a pygmy kingfisher and a yellow breasted tanager. There was a 5th bird in the mist net but managed to untangle itself just before we got to it. All I got was that it was red. I released the tanager back into the sky unharmed of course. For part of the Operation Wallacea research we needed to take measurements of the birds wings, beak and body.

 

 

On the way back from the bird surveys the truck had metal railings around the bed so we were able to stand up. Although you do have to watch out for any branches hanging low!

 

 

Lunch today was rice, beans and plantain and our second lecture. This time about reptiles and amphibians. I found out that slow worms have legs! Small ones but still legs. I never knew that.

 

4 o'clock was a trip down the road to transect 4 to measure some trees and to do a touch pole experiment. A touch pole experiment means you put a pole vertically every 2 metres in a 20 mete square plot and see how many points of a plant touches it. Trying to walk through a very dense forest with a pole and  cobwebs everywhere was a mission alone. After that we went on a 1km walk to try to find peccaries again. We were unsuccessful but did find a tarantula nest. I know the best thing to find ever! Luckily no tarantulas came out of it no matter how much Natalia tried to make them.

 

Dinner arrived later than expected tonight but when it did arrive, the swarm of people that ran towards the kitchen was crazy! It was like no one had eaten all week. Pasta and veg with iced tea.

 

 

We had an evening lecture on neotropical mammals with Kathy - the expert on spider monkeys. She was making a joke about how they hug each other just to get favours. A nice torrential downpour, which they haven't had in weeks so they were loving it and off to bed.

 

Toodles for now.



First proper day of the expedition - Trip Day 4

7 am start with cornflakes and powdered milk and mammal transect lines, looking for tracks. Our team leader for this activity was Natalia from Ecuador. She was a genius because she was finding tracks everywhere when I couldn't find a thing. She pointed to indents in the leaves where an animal had trod and the faint footprint underneath, another indent where a red rocket deer had been laying and on our way back we saw a group of about 6 or 7 peccaries. One even came towards us until Natalia shooed it off.

At 11.30 we learnt some jungle skills with John the Australian. It lasted 2 hours with a detailed discussion on how to survive if your plane crashed in the middle of a jungle and some knot tying.

Lunch today was chicken soup with rice and mango juice. Definitely much better than I was expecting. Since it's a conservation trip. we were here to learn as well as help in the projects. We had a lecture about the Calakmul area that we were in. At 3.30 I was in the bird group with Tiffany the Canadian and Enrique the Mexican who knows what any bird is just from hearing its call. Unfortunately we had no birds in the mist net this afternoon. They were probably put off by the thunder going on around us.  We'll have to come back.

I had a shower in daylight today which was much easier than the dark. The shower was in a little cubicle. And dinner was those beans and mashed potato with hibiscus water. I am starting to sense a theme with those beans and also I now know I like to drink flower juice!

Toodles for now.

Cancun, Mexico - Trip Day 2

If you haven't seen my last post I found my diary from back in 2013 when I did a conservation trip to Mexico and I decided to relive it and share it with you at the same time. I'm also trying to find all the photos too, currently not on my present laptop.

Day 2: Cancun, Mexico.
After a really hot night I managed to find the air con switch and after that it was lovely and cool. We were told the night before that we were to be outside by 9am and since I was still on UK time I was out way before that. I made the most of it and sat out in the sun. It was already getting hot. Although we were told to be out by 9, the guy who said that was no where to be seen until way after that himself.

Breakfast was watermelon, grapefruit, bread and jam and muffins! Still so weird to me that people eat those for breakfast. It was so good. We got ready and headed to the beach which didn't take long as it was only a 2 minute walk away. White sandy beaches with perfectly clear blue sea. Paradise. Of course I went for a swim. A short one as it was very choppy, but swimming none the less. We decided to go back to the hotel (before we were a burnt crisp) via Exxo - the Tesco of Mexico, they're everywhere! - for a refreshing bottle of freezing cold water. It was heaven in a bottle. We spent the afternoon on sun lounger at our hotel under a gazebo because being burnt whilst carrying a heavy rucksack just didn't seem at all fun. One person didn't think the same though. I thought I saw a lobster in the middle of our hotel.

Dinner was a restaurant ten minutes down the street to a local Mexican place. I had chicken enchiladas and a number 9 juice of strawberries, pineapple and orange. Seriously there was about 30 different flavours and it was huge! The food was delicious.

And after our very busy day (don't worry the sarcasm follows me everywhere! There's plenty more where that comes from) we went back to our hotel for bed. Tomorrow is down to business. The expedition begins.

Toodles for now.

Rewind to 2013 - Trip Day 1

I have a special treat for you guys for the next couple weeks. I have found my diary from when I went on a conservation trip to Mexico July/August 2013. I thought as I go down memory lane whilst reading it I shall let you read what my 17 year old self got up to whilst being 5000 miles from home. So here goes:

Day 1:
We left home at 3am after a couple of pictures of me in my clothes and rucksack on my back. The ferry at 4 arrived and I said goodbye to my family. The journey across the Solent went rather slowly but as soon as we landed in Portsmouth, we walked around and waited for the bus. 5.20 am the National Express coach arrived. Rucksacks went in the hold and I found a seat by the window. Southampton seemed huge. Felt like we were driving through it for ages but at least the seats were comfy. At Southampton University a guy got on and sat next to me. He was on the way to Heathrow Terminal 1. (I was being nosy) We got off at Heathrow terminal 3 after leaving half the group at terminal 5 since they were getting a different flight. The machine to get boarding passes wasn't working so we had to queue for check-in. A lady asked what electronics were in my hand luggage and for some reason stuck a sticker on the back of my passport. (Still to this day, 7th October 2017, I have no idea what that was for). The check-in guy gave us our boarding passes and name tags to put onto the rucksacks and sent them away on the escalator. Mine weighed 10.4kgs.

We made our way through the airport via WHSmith's for snacks. I had a prawn sandwich, a twirl, wine gums and a Ribena. We then went to our gate, ready to board the plane. I collected some free reading material and we took of on our flight around 11am. The plane ride was really good and for the 7 hour flight, the entertainment was great. I took interest in 'The Amazing Spiderman', 'Admission' and I did start 'The Impossible' but remembered I had seen it before and knew I cried. I did not want to be a sobbing mess on a plane. I put on some music and the first song that came on was 'Home' by Philip Philips which didn't help when I was travelling 5000 miles away for the next 17 days.

We landed in JFK airport with plenty of time for our next flight to Cancun. At the security gate, a 100% American was giving me a lecture on how to enter someone's office politely whilst he took my photograph and fingerprints. Didn't have to collect and check our bags again since we were on a connecting flight the bags automatically made their way to my next plane. We had to pass through some more security where I had to stand in a cylindrical machine with my arm up, feet apart.

Once on our flight, my seat happened to be in between two of our chaperones who also happened to be married to each other so I switched with one and got myself a window seat. No personal entertainment on this flight but a TV situated every 10 rows or so had some Matt Damon film playing.

It was dark by the time we landed in Cancun. Since being in London we were used to the air conditioning systems the airports had so the moment the automatic doors opened to Cancun, we were hit with 100% humidity. We arrived at our hotel for the next 2 nights around 11pm. It had been a long day but it will be worth it.

Manuel a member of Operation Wallacea met us at our hotel to get us sorted. We were give room keys and bracelets so we get breakfast!

Operation Wallacea - Named after the Wallacea region in Indonesia where a guy named Wallace discovered evolution around the same time as Darwin. Wallacea was where the first expedition began.



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That is day 1 of my Mexican expedition. I promise not every day is as long as this one but stick around for more about the trip.

Toodles for now.