Expedition Life
Mexican Marine Expedition in the Caribbean Sea

The cooking and general camp maintenance are shared between everybody. The group is divided into four who will do kitchen duty every four days. When you are not on kitchen duty, you will either be on boat duty (kitting up the boat for that day’s diving) or on ground duty (which involves raking the grounds and the beach). All of this contributes to the smooth running of the camp; keeping the base looking tidy and reducing the sand fly and ant problems.

Volunteers will be trained in how to use the compressor, and everyone takes it in turns to help fill the dive tanks for the next day’s diving. Everyone also takes it in turns to enter the research data that we have collected, which is then handed over to our in-country partners for analysis. Yet we will perform our own analysis of the data as well. Each volunteer will be responsible for other aspects of expedition life, which ranges from being dive and boat monitor to being food monitor or the much sought after rubbish monitor!

Volunteers can expect to do one-two dives per day, five days a week (weather depending), and one fun dive on Saturdays. On these dives you will be assessing the health of the Meso-American Barrier Reef system and collecting data on fish, coral and other benthos. The first three-four weeks are the hardest, as volunteers have to push themselves to learn both the diving skills and the marine survey skills that they will need to assist in the collection of data to a quantifiable level. It is extremely beneficial and important for expedition participants to learn as many of the area’s marine species as possible before starting the project, as this will save you numerous hours of basic learning and prepared to start the ID process when you arrive. It is important to note that the community work programme does not begin until week three of a ten week expedition to allow for all the dive and science training, which takes up a lot of time. In addition to the underwater work, volunteers will rotate between projects, thus taking some time away from the hard diving work. You can also spend some of your time participating in additional projects, such as those listed in the initial expedition section.

See up to date info on the Mexico Blog

Days are long and hard, beginning early to make the most of daylight hours. A typical day might consist of the following: travelling to the survey sites, conducting survey work, returning from the sites, washing down the equipment, filling air tanks ready for the next day and finishing late once all the data collected has been reviewed and then input in the database. At the end of the day, the whole team gathers in the evening to debrief, eat and socialise over a few beers as the sun goes down. At weekends (Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening), you have free time to spend however you see fit. Expedition staff may run optional fun dives and can help volunteers organise dive and snorkelling trips to hidden cenotes, excursions into the jungle, to the untouched local Mayan ruins and the famous Mayan sites of Coba and Tulum, and to the infamous Saturday Night Fiesta!

GVI can arrange for Spanish crash courses for volunteers who wish to learn or review the basics before commencing the expedition.

The expedition offers numerous incredibly exciting opportunities to volunteers. As a volunteer, you will have the opportunity to:

• Immerse yourself in a remote tropical paradise that is one of the world’s few remaining truly pristine environments, living within the biosphere reserve, working with our two local partners and experiencing a new culture, food and way of life
• Increase your personal knowledge of the tropical marine environment, its importance and the threats to it, whilst you help to increase both local and global knowledge and awareness
• Learn a variety of marine survey skills within the tropical environment
• Learn to dive to a certified, internationally recognised level, up to PADI Advanced Diver
• [As a diver] be trained specifically for research purposes and have the chance to increase your dive qualifications, depending on conditions
• Experience warm, crystal-clear water diving upon one of the most immaculate and spectacular examples of the coral reef environment in the world and, if you are lucky, see turtles, dolphins, manatees and sting rays up close in their natural environment
• Assist in both the child and adult marine education and awareness programmes; visiting and teaching within the local schools, restaurants, the expedition base and the open marine environment
• Assist in the development of the Ecological Research and Awareness Centre
• Take optional locally taught Spanish lessons
• Relax and party with your new friends at the well-deserved Saturday night fiesta!

You may also have the opportunity (during optional excursions) to:

• Take a trip to experience lowland tropical forests and have an opportunity to try and seek out threatened species, such as jaguar, puma, tapir, white-tailed deer, howler monkey, spider monkey, anteater, ocellated turkey, great curassow, toucan and king vulture and over 300 species of birds
• Dive or snorkel within the unique cenotes – the underwater river systems within the reserve
• Visit prime breeding areas for the hawksbill, loggerhead, leatherback, and green turtle
• Immerse yourself in the surviving Mayan culture of the area and visit remote and untouched Mayan archaeological sites, as well as the more famous sites like Tulum and Coba