Day 1: Saturday
Say “hola” to the Mexican Carribean. A GVI staff member will be waiting for you. Travel with your new friends to your accommodation where you’ll enjoy a traditional Mexican meal.
Day 2: Sunday
Start your PADI dive training. Complete the Knowledge Review portion of your PADI Open Water Diver or PADI Advanced Open Water course.
Day 3: Monday
Meet your diving instructors. Participate in dive exercises and planning and finish off the theoretical part of your diving course.
Day 4: Tuesday
Suit up in your diving gear and practice key diving skills in the pool. Practice important underwater skills like buoyancy and underwater breathing.
Day 5: Wednesday
Head out into the vibrant underwater world of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest in the world. Practice your diving skills on four or five open water dives.
Day 6: Thursday
Head out into the vibrant underwater world of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second largest in the world. Practice your diving skills on four or five open water dives.
Day 7: Friday
Learn the CoralWatch technique, an internationally used method for surveying the health of corals. Find out how to use the coral chart to identify healthy or unhealthy corals.
Day 8: Saturday
Visit a cenote, a turquoise pool, surrounded by limestone walls, skylit from above. You’ll also climb Coba, the tallest Mayan pyramid in the region.
Day 9: Sunday
Clean up a beach, help researchers monitor mother and baby sea turtles, and learn how to identify specific coral species common in the Mexican Carribbean.
Day 10: Monday
Clean up a beach, help researchers monitor mother and baby sea turtles, and learn how to identify specific coral species common in the Mexican Carribbean.
Day 11: Tuesday
Clean up a beach, help researchers monitor mother and baby sea turtles, and learn how to identify specific coral species common in the Mexican Carribbean.
Day 12: Wednesday
Find out how and why marine biologists and conservationists study fish species found on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef and even learn to identify some yourself.
Day 13: Thursday
Tour a mangrove forest and learn about the importance of these ecosystems. Then visit a coral growing laboratory to learn about how researchers are helping local reefs recover.
Day 14: Friday
Visit Chichen Itza, a massive Mayan city. Climb the spell-binding pyramid of Kukulcan, a UNESCO world heritage site, and one of the new seven wonders of the world.
Day 15: Saturday
Head back to the airport along with GVI staff and other volunteers. Watch the Carribbean Sea retreat from view and reflect on all you’ve learnt about protecting the world’s oceans.