Getting into the swing of things

After a couple weeks into the internship, Marc and I had settled into the Playa life. We got local cell phones, purchased from the convenient store, Oxxo. The cell phone system is pre-pay, you purchase credits as you go. You can buy the credits from any Oxxo. We bought the cheapest phones we could get and were suddenly back in the early 00’s with T3 version of texting. At first we didn’t know how to work the phones; it’s amazing how far technology has come. Marc was transferred to Playacar because they were short on staff. Taxis to Playacar for “locals” (yeah we were now locals and paid the local price everywhere we went) was 40 pesos, which was still a couple dollars. After a couple days paying for a taxi, we decided the most economical way for Marc to get to work was by bicycle. We were working 6 days a week and had one day off to get what we needed to get done. On our day off, we walked to the bicycle shop, which was a couple blocks from Mega. Marc got a brand-new fancy bike with a lock!  The new bike with lock ran us just under 1,500 pesos ($115 or so US). Little did he know at the time was he would eventually be doing the grocery shopping with his new form of transportation! We didn’t have a kitchen, just a hot plate we bought at Wal-Mart. Yup, there’s a Wal-Mart in Mexico. We had found our way around Playa and were really enjoying ourselves. 

Our Fellow Interns

Our “first” real day of the internship was a breeze. We were told which locations we would be placed and started reading the Dressel Divers “bible”, their version of an employee handbook.  We left early that day to get settled into our new room-a step above the room we stayed in the first night. It was a simple room with a double bed, a single bed, bathroom and mini fridge-the ones you have in dorm rooms. Our front door was actually French doors that opened to a small patio with a path that led to the pool. We left the doors open for ventilation. The day was coming to an end and as we were finishing unpacking, the other interns came home from the day’s work. All Dressel interns lived at Hotel Casa Tucan. They stopped by and introduced themselves. Sebastian was from England, Josef from the French Indies in the Caribbean, and Csaba from Slovakia/Hungary. The three of them lived in the room next to us.  Then there was Brent, the southern boy from Athens, Georgia. Sitting at a patio table outside, drinking a beer and eating tuna directly from a can, Brent gave us the lowdown of the internship. He told us about each location we were going to be placed, and the daily routine. There are three Dressel Divers locations in Playa Del Carmen: Playacar, Paraiso, and Barcelo. Iberostar Paraiso was the biggest of the resorts with five resorts combined into one. Sebastian and Josef worked at Barcelo. Csaba and Brent worked at Paraiso.

This is Brent. The crazy American "ladies" man. 

The next morning we showed up at Playacar and were told which location we would be working which was Paraiso with Csaba and Brent. We got in a truck with one of the Mexican workers and were on our way to, what we thought, would be both of our permanent location.  We were introduced to our Base Leader and then handed the “bible” to finish reading (to this day, neither one of us have finished it). That afternoon, we went to the pool to conduct demos and sell.  The demos ended at 5 PM everyday and it was time to close up and catch the bus to go home. When we went back to the dive shop we met the other employees, the instructors and PR people. We all walked together to the “employee” entrance of the resort and got on a bus to go back to Playa. It was an eclectic group with all different backgrounds comprised of Australians, French, English, Colombian, German, Israeli, Hungary, and the good ol’ USA.  The bus ride back to Playa was about 25 min (not the short walk we were told). It dropped everyone off at Mega, the main grocery store in Playa Del Carmen and we all walked our separate ways. The walk from Mega to Casa Tucan was roughly 10 minutes, depending on how fast you walked.

The rest of the week, we arrived at Mega at 6:45 AM to catch the bus to work. We ate breakfast in the Comedor, the cafeteria for the hotel workers, and did the 10-minute walk from the Comedor to the dive shop. We geared up for our “fun” dive of the day and got on the boat. After the dive, we would go to the pool for morning demos, then the hour lunch break at the Comedor, then back for afternoon demos until 5. Let me tell you a little about the Comedor. I thought this was going to be the same type of food the hotel guests would eat. Was I completely wrong! Rice and beans seemed to be the only edible thing served each day. There were a lot of dishes that you weren’t sure what it was. The fruit was from a can (occasionally there was fresh fruit and we’re living in a tropical place!), and the milk was served warm.  Occasionally we would have pizza or hamburgers and the Comedor would be in complete chaos. Seriously! There was no order in the Comedor. No lines. No excuse me. NOTHING! I will have to say the one good thing about the Comedor was the ice cream served at lunch everyday. My diet consisted of rice, beans and ice cream!

Part of our amazing team at Paraiso!

Each person was assigned a closing duty and all duties had to be completed before we left to catch the bus back to Playa. This was going to basically, be our routine for the next six months. Though we had our doubts, we were still optimistic and we had met some really cool people that all had interesting stories.

The interns and friends hanging out at Hotel Casa Tucan.

Want to see where we live?!

So I know we've been telling our story about living in Mexico; but, I want to make a quick interruption and bring you exciting news from Roatan.  Our roommate, Rika, (of Cubicle Throwdown) did a guest interview at 30Traveler about our home in Roatan.

Head over to 30Traveler and check out the interview.  Also, keep reading our blog and see how we got to Roatan with the few bumps along the way!

Our view from the rooftop patio. This is paradise!

Thanks Rika, for taking the time out to clean the house, and the shoutout in your interview!

The "Internship" begins...

We woke the next morning after a few hours of sleep in between the sweat, bugs, tossing and turning.  The instructions were to show up at the dive shop at the Iberostar in Playacar.  Playacar is just an extension of Playa del Carmen to the south side where most of the bigger, nicer resorts are all located at.  We easily found a taxi, managed to scrap together some of our stellar Spanglish skills to let the driver know where we were going, and $7 later found ourselves at the front gate to the resort.  After stumbling through some more Spanish to the gate guard and another non-English speaking lady on a phone we eventually managed to get inside the resort.  Turns out the “appointment” we had didn’t exist and we had to come back in a few hours when the guy we were supposed to meet was around.  We eventually wound up on the very beautiful beach to kill some time.  Interestingly enough Ashley and a couple of her girlfriends had had a long weekend trip to this exact Iberostar the year before…  When the time finally came, we signed some paperwork, got our uniforms, and then had a pointless meeting with a guy who still wasn’t the guy we were told we would meet with.  He asked us a few generic questions that we had already answered in the application process, then sent us to the dive shop on the beach to get a quick rundown of how things were going to be as told to us by the base leader.  We were told we would have (only) one fun dive a day, help out around the shop a little bit, be spending most of the day in the pool doing demos, and were expected to sell anything and everything at all times.  

This, along with the way everything else had gone the past two days was not exactly what we were expecting, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt.  We thought, “How terrible could it really be?  We have a dive job on the beach in frickin’ Mexico!”  Unfortunately for us, the string of mishaps, lack of organization, and hints of misconception would turn out to be all so telling… 

¡Vamos a la Mexico!

The first stop on our voyage was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  There our plan was to complete a six month internship with Dressel Divers in exchange for a free PADI Instructor’s certification.  Dressel Divers is a large dive operation with numerous branches, all attached to big all-inclusive resorts, mostly Iberostars.  We were told by a seemingly nice enough guy on Skype that the internship went like this:  Free stay in an apartment that may or may not have A/C, have a nice short walk to work showing up around 8:30, get a couple of dives in a day, spend a little bit of time in the pool showing people how great diving was, eat some good food in the hotel, gain experience as a Divemaster leading dives, and continuously working towards the Instructors Development Course (IDC).   Sounds nice, yeah?!

Ashley and I landed in Cancun, Mexico at 9:30 p.m. on July 31^st. We got a pretty good deal on airline tickets -- $300 round trip from Kansas City with Delta.  Our return flight was scheduled for September 27^th, just a quick few day trip back home for my sister’s wedding in Iowa before resuming the internship back in Mexico.  Anyways, after collecting our extremely excessive amounts of luggage, we made our way outside of the airport terminal to find our way to Playa del Carmen.  One thing that is quickly discovered about Mexico’s tourist areas is that the business people LOVE to harass you -- trying to talk you into using their service or buy their product, usually starting at an obnoxiously higher price than they will actually take.  At the airport these people consist of taxi and shuttle bus drivers.  The thing is no matter how much you barter with these people, they will still be way more expensive then taking the ADO bus.  So sift through all the incredibly annoying people trying to pull you into their vehicle and take the bus.  The ADO bus cost 114 pesos, around $10US depending on the exchange rate.  It runs from 10ish in the morning to 10:30ish at night, leaving at least once every hour.  The bus is also very nice.  They are comfortable, clean, safe, play movies (in Spanish of course), and perhaps most importantly they all have air conditioning.  If you are planning on taking longer trips around Mexico, I would highly recommend the ADO bus system.

 After the hour bus ride to Playa del Carmen, which consisted of me convincing Ashley that both us and our luggage were safe on the bus, we arrived at the main bus station on the famous Avenida 5.  I knew the place we were staying was only three blocks from the bus stop, so I managed to talk Ashley into walking rather than taking a Taxi.  I think the walk instantly calmed any concerns about our safety.  It was nearly midnight on a Tuesday and the streets were packed with locals and tourists alike.  They were all out eating, shopping, and of course drinking.  Before too long we arrived at our “apartment,” which turned out to be Casa Tucan Hotel.  Our permanent room wasn’t available until the next night, so we had to pay for a night in a different room.  Let me tell you this room scared the shit out of Ashley.  It was a tiny (maybe 15’ x 20’), one bedroom room with a thatch grass roof, tiny little bathroom, one screen window and that is pretty much it.  I tend to be slightly more optimistic than most, including Ashley, who as soon as the door closed behind us had second thoughts about everything we had just signed up for.  I knew this wasn’t our place for good, and had high hopes for improvement the next day.  We went for a late night walk down to the beach three blocks away to relax and wind down, looking back on our long day of traveling and nervously wondering what the next few days and months had in store for us.

ABC's of Diving Bonaire

Our first date (Marc doesn’t like to claim it was a date but that’s what it was) was at a hole in the wall bar on the famous Burnet Road in Austin called Pour House.  For those of you that know me, know that this is one of my favorite bars in Austin and for those that haven’t been, check out this little gem! Marc and I were sitting on the patio enjoying the cool November air and decided to challenge one another at a game of Cornhole (the bean bag game). After a couple games, we agreed to a bet that if I win, he would have to go on a dive trip with me for my birthday (which is in February) and if he won, I’d have to do the limbo in front of everyone at the bar. Not wanting to lose because first I had the travel bug and second I’m the most uncoordinated person on this planet and I didn’t want to make a fool of myself in front of everyone, especially him, I put my game face on and won! A couple months flew by and my birthday was coming up. Having remembered the bet from day one, we decided to go to Bonaire.

Bonaire is a Caribbean island that is part of the Netherlands. Together with Aruba and Curacao, it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands (get the title?!).  It is known for some of the best shore diving in the world.  It’s also a great spot for those diving on a budget and wanting to get a lot of dives in (which was our case).  Continental United has a direct flight out of Houston! Yahoo for no layovers! After countless hours of research online, we booked our stay at Caribbean Club Bonaire for 6 nights.  The hotel is located north of Kralendijk-yeah I had to look up how to spell it and don’t ask me how to pronounce it- near some of the best dive sites on the island.  The rooms range from quaint budget studios to two bedrooms to the luxurious penthouse. All rooms come with a kitchen and patio and cable tv, but who really needs tv when you’re in paradise. As for the diving setup, you pay $200/week for unlimited tanks with a free nitrox upgrade and rent a truck with slots in the bed to place your tanks. Caribbean Club is partnered with Buddy’s Dive Resort so you can pick up/drop off your tanks at either place. Let’s get to the good stuff: the diving!

As mentioned, Bonaire has some of the best shore diving in the world comprised of about 80 different dive sites. It’s an environmentally conscious island with strict laws against dive gloves and knifes that’s doing its part in keeping the reef system alive and healthy. I highly suggest purchasing “Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy” by Susan Porter as it goes into descriptions of each dive site, the topography and marine life.  You can find more information about the book here. All dive sites are marked on a yellow painted rock with the site name written in black along the road. You then just park on the side of the street or, in some cases, on the beach.  Just a little tip: leave the windows rolled down and don’t leave anything valuable in the vehicle as theft is frequent. Or just hide your stuff so it’s not in sight! The great thing about Bonaire is the “dive freedom”: you can do your own thing, on your own schedule. Gear up and get in the water and EXPLORE! Most reefs are about 100 yards off shore and have a mooring line.  The visibility is excellent-80+ feet and the reef system is quite healthy.  You’ll see eels, lobster, tarpon, grouper, turtles, lion fish, reef fish, drum fish (juveniles) among many other things. You can rent an underwater camera for the day at Buddy’s Dive Resort for fairly cheap.  Below are some pictures we took-by no means professional but rather a work in progress! 

Marc and I did 4 dives a day with a couple night dives. We went all over the island, including Washington National Park. Having a truck is a must as there are no paved roads in the park. With that said, the views, diving and birding are exquisite in the park. The surge is rough and there is a current but you’ll see rays, turtles, and possibly sharks. It’s a full day but definitely worth it.

There are many other activities to do on the island besides diving. Bonaire is also known for its world-class windsurfing and kite boarding.  The winds on the east end make it an utopia for windsurfing and there are hundreds of windsurfers of all different levels. We wanted to take lessons but didn’t have enough time.  Further down the road are the kite boarders. Marc and I sat on the beach and watched for a good hour as the boarders practiced their tricks as the sun began to set in the distance. This place is definitely for water adventure junkies!

The main town is your typical beach town with souvenir shops and restaurants. We cooked a couple nights and went out on the town other nights. The town has a supermarket that carries pretty much everything you can find in the States among many other things. There’s an excellent Peruvian place that many tourist know of (I’m sorry I can’t think of the name) near the end of the strip.  Buddy’s Dive Resort has good food and a nice bar on the water as well as Captain Don’s. There isn’t much of a nightlife but with all the diving, neither of us had the energy to get too crazy. Our last night we watched the sunset from a dock down the street from the resort then went to town to splurge on a nice Italian dinner.  With just a few hours to enjoy paradise before boarding the plane back to reality, we reminisced about the week and the amazing diving we had experienced. I couldn’t have picked a better dive buddy and think it was fate that I won the bet on our first date.