Hurricane Rina and superheros

Greetings from a stuffy hotel in Tulum, Mexico.

Today is Friday 28th October. And I am currently on "lock down" in Tulum.

On Tuesday we didn't dive. The sea was too choppy and we were informed there was a hurricane on its way and we may have to evacuate, so instead, to keep moral from dropping to a new all time low, we had... The Pez Mayan Olympics! We had an hour and a half to make an anthem and costumes. I nearly wet my pants with excitement. My hut (and a couple others) changed into our best superhero outfits (any excuse to wear my undies over tights) and donned our superhero names (I was T Bomb- which in case people didn't know was drawn in permanent pen on my stomach). After a couple of hours of crab wrestling, tag teaming and generally falling over in the sand, the games were done (but the permanent pen endured well into the night). A day not totally lost.

Wednesday, we were informed that we had to evacuate, Hurricane Rina was making her way, albeit at 6km/hr, toward the Yukutan. So, we packed up everything. The office, the kitchen, and piled everything, except a small bag with 4 days worth of clothes, into the green room, and headed into town. At first it seemed exciting, a hurricane, us, no way. But then the reality of being stuck inside, NOT diving, for days kicked in. This sucks.

So yesterday, we waited. In my room was Joe, Robyn and Laura and we made a super bed and watched bad movies (when there was electricity), played games and made friendship bracelets. All hoping for the weather to pass so we could return to our simple life among the iguanas and waves. We were warned of insane rain and winds up to 140km/hr and we watched as shops boarded up their windows. And... it rained, a little. It was windy, for a bit. And Rina was downgraded from a category 2 to a category 1 hurricane, and then a tropical storm with a slow winding path. And today it has been predicted to head back this way as a tropical depression- nothing we can't handle. So with a sliver of sunshine we all dashed to the Tulum ruins to play tourist, and this afternoon we are heading back to base.

But before Rina rained on my parade (literally) I was having a fantastic week:

Last Saturday we had our first "Fun Dive"- just a dive, no science, no coral spots, just diving for the sake of diving. We went to a shallow site called The Gardens. Its a section of reef still in the lagoon (the waves were too choppy on the reef) full of juvenile fish and my favourite coral. I took my little Sony camera and although the visibility was terrible took photos of my favourite coral. Coral is officially my FAVOURITE animal. It was such a great dive.

On Sunday a dozen of us made our way to the Coba ruins. While everyone piled onto bikes to race around the ruins I walked, taking more photos of cool bugs and trees than of the actual ruins. It was a glorious day. At the top of a huge Mayan pyramid I stood staring out at the green landscape, cushion clouds overhead, this is what life is about. These moments- surrounded by the family of friends you create for yourself, on top of the world, sharing laughs, cloud spotting and memories- stick with you forever.

Monday was also fantastic. It was the best day I've had here. There was a little bat that parked itself outside of kitchen. A huge praying mantis. A tiny little monterey eel. An urchin. And on the Point Intercept training dive I spotted stuff that Sven (our Swedish dive master) didn't even see!

So now, I'm sitting in my stuffy hotel room trying to simultaneously pack, type and eat lunch, I think of Sergio the baby osprey and smile- I'm going home. Well, home for now, among the iguanas and pelicans. For one more week.

Until next time, hugs, peace and love from Mexico.

Hurricane Rina and superheros