Yomps, Adventure Travel Experiences

Mexico Marine Research Conservation
Full Itinerary

Volunteer in Mexico on this marine conservation expedition and help to protect the world’s second largest barrier reef – the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. As you live in a remote tropical paradise you will learn to scuba dive from a beginner's level (earning PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water Diver certificates), help on community development initiatives and experience the beautiful world that exists beneath the waves!

Mexico

Week 1 - Be immersed in a tropical paradise, learn about marine conservation, train to dive on the amazing Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and become a valued member of the marine conservation research team!

This volunteering expedition begins in the coastal city of Cancun, which is located on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Here you will meet your fellow volunteers and be transported to the beautiful city Playa Del Carmen, to spend the night. The following morning, you will rendezvous with the expedition staff and the rest of the team and then make your way to the secluded marine base that will be your new home. The volunteer base is situated in the heart of the Sian Ka’an (Mayan for ‘where the sky is born’) Biosphere Reserve at Boca Paila. The base is located south of Cancun and about an hour from Tulum on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in an area that is rich in Mayan history, having the ruins of Tulum, Coba and Chitchen Itza situated in close proximity. To reach the remote marine base, you will travel along a dirt track through dense jungle from Tulum into the Biosphere Reserve. As volunteers meander south along this spectacular peninsula, you will pass endless Caribbean beaches until you reach your very own! Upon arrival, you will get a chance to recuperate from your journey and acclimatise to your new tropical surroundings.

The first three weeks of this volunteering expedition are usually the most demanding as you will learn all the skills you need for both elements of this volunteering experience – the scuba diving and the marine conservation. In order to become proficient scuba divers from a beginner's level, volunteers will learn both the PADI Open Water and PADI Advanced level diving courses. Volunteers will learn the Open Water course through lectures, skills exercises and qualifying dives at sea. The qualification covers a range of subjects, including equipment set up, hand signals, buoyancy control and over twenty other essential scuba diving skills. You will then progress to the Advanced level course, and learn more complex skills, such as underwater navigation and deep diving. Finally, volunteers will complete the PADI Coral Reef Researcher qualification, to learn how to carry out the marine conservation research.

A few examples of the marine conservation subjects that you will learn about during this initial training period are shown below:

• Fish identification
• Habitats
• Adaptations, lifestyles and schooling of fish families
• Appearance on the reef
• Feeding and defence
• Cleaning symbiosis
• Reproduction
• Coral identification
• Marine plants and algae.

Once you have acquired all of the necessary marine surveying techniques and PADI diving qualifications, you will be able to carry out the research proficiently. All volunteers are assigned alternating duties on a daily basis, and are then responsible for fulfilling that role and contributing towards team life. Examples include camp duty (such as cooking and cleaning) or boat duty (including preparing the boats for dive and stocking them with equipment, such as water and first aid kits, etc).

At the end of the day the group is assembled to debrief, eat and socialise over a few cold beers while you watch the sunset in your new home – the tropical Mexican coastline!

Week 4 onwards - Put your newly acquired knowledge and PADI scuba diving skills to the test as a valued member of the marine conservation research team, immerse yourself in the remote tropical surroundings, teach in local communities as part of community development initiatives, experience one of the world’s last remaining true pristine environments and perhaps even spot some rare and endangered species!

In addition to the underwater work, volunteers will rotate between projects, to take some time away from the hard scuba diving work and free up your time for other activities. The days continue to start early and are long, to make most of the daylight hours. On a typical day you will travel to survey sites, take part in the survey work, return from the sites, wash down equipment, fill the air tanks ready for the next day and then normally have a late finish, once all the data collected has been received and put into the database. You can expect to do one to two dives per day, six days a week (weather depending) to assess the health of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system and collect data on fish, coral and other benthos.

The community development aspect of the expedition involves training local fishermen, helping with marine education and awareness programmes, and providing English language tuition. Volunteers will teach English in the local school and community to give the local population a better chance of developing from the influx of foreign revenue into the area.

In your spare time, you might decide to have a game of volleyball, relax on the beach, explore the local area or even learn to surf using the expedition’s surfboard! You may also choose to learn or brush up on your Spanish, either by interacting with the local communities or taking an informal evening class. A National Scholarship Programme also runs that allows Mexican nationals to join the expedition for free, which in turn provides volunteers with the excellent opportunity to practise Spanish with them. If you wish to learn some Spanish before the expedition, please mention it when completing the online booking form to volunteer in Mexico.

At weekends (Saturday afternoons to Sunday evenings), your time is free to spend however you see fit. Expedition staff may run optional fun dives and can help you to organise diving and snorkelling trips to hidden cenotes. They can also help you to arrange going on excursions into the jungle and trips into the untouched Mayan sites of Coba and Tulum. Also do not forget, you can enjoy the infamous and well deserved Saturday Night Volunteer Fiestas!

Whether you in Mexico for five or ten weeks, once your initial weeks of training are completed, you will spend the rest of your time making use of the new skills and knowledge that you have acquired on this marine conservation volunteering expedition.

The Aims of this Expedition Are To:

• Conduct coral reef and fish monitoring surveys
• Conduct daily sea turtle nesting surveys (seasonal)
• Conduct underwater sea turtle sighting surveys and log any incidental sightings of fauna
• Teach local fisherman and guides English and train them in diving and survey techniques that aid sustainable development
• Develop the research base as a Children’s Education Centre
• Assist the education and awareness programmes at local schools, communities, fishing lodges, the research base and in the open environment
• Conduct activities on behalf of our local partners, Amigos de Sian Ka’an and others, sharing all data to help them achieve their aims.

- A Typical Diving Day for the Group

Please note that this is only a rough guide to give a better idea of what to expect during your stay. All volunteers can expect between one and two dives per day (when not working on other projects and weather permitting).

0600 – Wake up
0630 – Breakfast
0700 – Boat push
0730 – Dive one
0930 – Dive two
1130 – Lunch/siesta
1200 – Dive three
1400 – Dive four
1500 – Private study
1700 – Staff meeting
1900 – Dinner
2000 – Crocodile research (when this study is being carried out by Amigos de Sian Ka’an)

Bedtime is at your own discretion

- Arrival Information

Volunteers must make their own way to Cancun, where you will be met by an expedition staff member. Volunteers will receive more information when making your booking.

- Expedition Skills Required

No previous experience of marine research or foreign language skills are required to join this expedition, as volunteers will receive a comprehensive training programme designed to give them all the necessary skills they need. However, all volunteers must be able to pass a medical examination to prove they are physically fit to dive. All volunteers will be tested on arrival at the base, which consists of an unaided 200m surface swim, followed by a 10 minute float, or a 300m swim with a snorkel, mark and fins, followed by a ten minute float, both in the open sea environment. Volunteers must also be 18 years of age or older and speak English. Additionally everyone must be able to work as part of a team and have a strong interest in wildlife and conservation. Participants must also be enthusiastic, adventurous, have a good sense of humour and be respectful of the host country’s environment and cultures.

- Internship

An internship is open to all those who volunteer for ten weeks, and at the five week stage you will be given the opportunity to apply. This internship gives you the opportunity to stay on the expedition for a further ten weeks at no cost. If you are successful in your application to become an intern you will, in effect, become an unpaid member of staff, assisting the permanent staff with the day-to-day running of the expedition and training new volunteers.

- Extra Activites Available

Volunteers have the opportunity to complete further diving qualifications during your time in Mexico. The following prices include a 15-25% discount on the rates normally charged by PADI dive centres and are fully inclusive of training manuals and equipment (yet please note that the science and community work will always take priority over any extra dive training):

• Rescue, including Emergency First Response Certification (£190 / US$350)
• Divemaster (£350/ US$595)
• Rescue & Divemaster (£485/ US$850).

- Costs

	Pound sterling (£)	US Dollar ($)	Euros (€)
5 weeks	1575	3,150	2,365
10 weeks	2595	5,190	3,895

- Malaria Awareness

Travelling to long-haul destinations can be a wonderful and exciting experience. Before you go, make sure you take the right travel advice about visiting Malaria risk countries. At Yomps we are committed to stopping traveller deaths from malaria which is why we support the campaign being run by Malariahotspots.com. Click here to download our free guide about Malaria Awareness (opens in a new window).