Abi's Deep Dive

The last two months have flown by. Next week marks 5 months of living here! My divemaster is now well under way (separate post for that!), I have got the hang of the job, and I persist with learning Spanish: Duolingo informed me yesterday that I have completed 1503 lessons in 2013, taking 5503 minutes, and am in the top 1% of learners! The weather is fabulous, I am currently sitting outside a restaurant, it’s 13.00 and 30 degrees. It’s humid, but recently there has been at least a gentle breeze. The wind can create problems for diving by either the port being closed and no boats allowed out, or increasing waves and current, so we have had several no dive days on base to make sure we keep everyone safe.

Driving here is ok. Here in the Yucatan Peninsula there is one long highway along the coast so from here in Puerto Morelos it’s north to Cancun or south to Playa del Carmen. Right of way seems to depend on the size of your vehicle, slow lanes are often used by drivers weaving in between vehicles, and one would think seatbelts are optional and that the number of people allowed in a vehicle is decided by a double dice roll. Mopeds drive around with one adult front and back, and children sandwiched between them, helmets optional. Truck beds often have a whole crew riding in them, and vehicles are driven around despite having missing or damaged parts. At the beginning of November I had dropped a group into Playa to do a pool session for a course, early before the day started Miguel and I had loaded the two trucks with participants and kit and gone to the pool. Everyone dropped off I headed back to base, to get back onto the highway I had to cross the three lanes going south and avoid the fast lane going North. It feels very much like a game of Frogger (Atari, shows my age!). Having managed this manoeuvre, I settled in for the drive back. Miguel was somewhere behind me in his truck, and we were getting back in time to pick up some of the other participants. Along the highway there are different places where traffic slows: police check points, topes (speed bumps), broken road, road workers etc so when the traffic slowed I didn’t think too much of it. I was in the middle lane, music on, no stress. We soon got to a collision which was blocking the slow lane (to the right) A truck had somehow hit a Colectivo (the little buses that everyone depends on to get around) both drivers were standing and chatting, no harm done, so vehicles got around them and continued. Traffic however was still slow. A bit further along, the fast lane was blocked by a small car that looked like it had been crushed, brand indistinguishable there was so much damage. Next to the car a man lay still in the road. Another man was sitting next to him. I couldn’t see any blood, just broken glass and the two men. There were no emergency services and my instinct is always to stop, but I had no idea what Mexican law is about pulling up on the highway etc so I took the cowards way out and called Miguel who is also an EFR trainer. He said he would stop when he reached the collision so I continued back to base feeling really uneasy about what I’d seen.

I got back to base, picked people up and then Miguel called. He was still stuck on the highway, he had reached the collision and the EMT were there. The man was dead. He hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt and had been thrown from his car. He must have been dead when I drove past and he was lying in the road, but I still felt like I should have stopped. I just carried on driving like everyone else, and the brutality of it has really stuck with me. I had to drive back to Playa a few hours later and there was no remnant of either collision, or indication of any kind of investigation, I felt like the reminder was me being extra cautious on the road.

Life on base is lovely, we see so many creatures here. At the moment we have an agouti and a coati who visit every afternoon. They are quite a pair snuffling around together looking for food! I’ve walked down to the beach a few times along the straight road that runs alongside the mangroves and has warnings for crocodiles 🐊

If you read my blog regularly you will see that this week I had a small disaster. After a fab day, I caught the Colectivo home and when I got back to the house I no longer had my wallet. In Mexico you are supposed to carry your passport for ID as people come here to work illegally. Your passport has your length of Visa stamped in it so allows the police and military to check whether you should be in the country. I was carrying my passport and my driving license as well as bank cards and my phone. I managed to catch up to the Colectivo a few stops later but there was no sign of my wallet. I got home and started messaging everyone I have met here. We have a lovely Colectivo driver who drives our participants in and out of town to base each day, he contacted the Colectivo What’sApp group and all the drivers were messaging in after checking their bus. Our boat captain Hilario messaged his friends, and the lovely Sarai who led me on a whale shark trip last year and who I have met up with a couple of times since I have been back sent my phone a message in Spanish, as well as posting for me on various local facebook groups. I was so upset! I can’t drive the work vehicle without a driving licence, I can’t access any online banking without entering a code I get by text, and my simcard is a UK one.

The next day I cancelled my driving license and went to the police station, Sarai came with me as you need a translator. It was going to cost me $1000 to file a report to use for the insurance. The police station was empty apart from one person and so I checked with Miguel that this was standard. I decided to wait until the following day to file a report. I lay awake all night thinking of all the things I had to do…… new UK sim card and driving licence, new phone (I only got this one 5 months ago), phoning banks. it was still dark when I got up, giving up on getting any sleep. I checked my work phone and I had a message from Sarai with screen shots of all of my things!! Someone had messaged her to say they had it all!! I messaged straight back, I was so excited at the possibility of getting everything back! She hadn’t replied when I went to work so it was a waiting game. I was supposed to be doing my next divemaster training dive, but didn’t want to miss a chance to collect my stuff so we rearranged the day so that I wasn’t diving. Sarai called me and we went to the address she had been given and a lady came out and gave me all of my things. Everything was there even the cash. The only missing thing was my ticket to pick up my laundry and I am way too tall for anyone here to take my clothes!! I feel completely blessed. This just highlighted for me exactly how everyone I have met here has been so lovely. Sarai spent time helping me despite only having met me for a few times, Winnie and Hilario messaged all of their contacts, Miguel, Ellie and Maria the GVI staff who helped me search, called people, drove me around, and all of the people I haven’t met who on Facebook shared my post and messaged me. Of course the biggest thanks to the lovely lady who found my wallet and handed it back completely in tact. The tearful hug I gave her was a bit of a shock I think, average height here is small, so a giant gringa hugging her isn’t the norm, but I was so grateful. My whole experience has reinforced my opinion that on the whole people really are good, life is too short not to follow your dreams, and you should always wear a seatbelt!