The half-way point

Wow. The last 5 weeks have gone by so quickly and I'm fearing the next 5 are going to be a countdown for a return to the 'real' world. But, at least we have another R&R weekend in Playa starting now!

It's been a pretty fun week, even though we weren't able to dive for 4 days due to rough seas. On one of those days I went out for a snorkel and saw a 2m Southern stingray just 2m away, which was the highlight of the week. Although, driving the Hummer comes a pretty close second.

The army regularly patrols our little road, going up and down the coast looking for drug smugglers. Anyway, because they do this at least several times a day, they've become at least pretty familiar with us and us with them. They are pretty relaxed guys and pretty good guys. So good in fact, that I drove their Hummer from town back to base. Oh yes indeedy. And it wasn't just a boy thing - the girls loved having a go too... or maybe it was the Army guys who were more interested in letting the girls drive around in their bikini's.

Also at the top of the list of this week's activities was kite boarding. I went up to Tulum last weeeked to see Jessica and Willem and did an introductory session, which was only an hour an a half, as I had to catch a bus to come back down to Mahahual. Fantastic stuff. I think it's going to be the summer activity of choice for 2006. I'm going to do some more in Playa this weekend and if I can, squeeze in another one in Tulum on the way back from Playa.

The main reason for stopping in Tulum (as far as the rest of the group is concerned) is to do a cenote dive. A cenote is a landbased, freshwater sinkhole with an extensive underground network of tunnels that eventually join up with the sea. They're full of stalactites and stalagmites pitch and black inside, so I'll finally be able to use my dive torch! Jessica was telling me it's amazing to all turn your torches off to see the light playing through the water and casting shadows of fish and underwater structures onto the cavern walls. It also sounds like a nice little adrenalin hit!

Just to round out the week, someone dropped off a 5 inch baby hawksbill turtle to the base this afternoon. They found it on the beach, and it looked as though something had tried to take a bite out of it: there was a piece of the shell missing, though there didn't seem to be any flesh wounds directly underneath. It was obviously tired and in shock, so we put it in a tank of seawater and some rocks for serveral hours to let it rest before taking it out to sea to be released. I was surprised that it was released so soon, but it was done on staff instructions: they should know what they're doing!