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.