As part of each meetup at Automattic, the team will work hard and play hard. It encourages team bonding, allowing you to spend time with the people you work with each week, in a relaxed atmosphere.
Linda and Zach did some amazing wrangling for this trip, and today we had Guido the tour guide take us on a trip with snorkelling and enjoy one of the wonderful cenotes.
We took a drive down the coast, and our first stop was the Akumal Dive Shop. Kitted up with a snorkel mask, and a few guides, we got into the ocean. To swim with turtles!
Look how excited we are!
At first the panic hit me. I had never snorkelled before, so the “breathe through the mouth piece” wasn’t helping at first, my heart raced. But I took a second, and went for it. After a few seconds I acclimatised, my breathing went slow and deep, and I could see under the water. Which kinda helped considering I normally wear glasses and had to take them off – the mask magnified underwater about 20% apparently.
Here’s yer boy and one of his new mates:
Completely un-posed, I thought I was much closer, so I was trying my best to float over this beautiful creature.
It was an incredible experience, the fish came right up to us, I cut my thumb on some coral / rocks, and lost the group for the last 20 minutes. 10/10 would do again.
We then got out, grabbed a beverage our van driver had brought with him, and went back up the road a bit. We transferred vans into an old beatup minivan, and went into the forrest. After about 15 minutes of thinking I’d been shaken up with all the bumping, we emerged into a small clearing with a hut. Life vest on again, new masks, and down into a cenote which OH NOPE IT IS DARK AND DEEP AND OOOOH LOOK AT THIS!
We have photos somewhere, so I’ll try to update this later with them.
I had been in cenotes before, on our honeymoon, my wife and I went to the Xplor Park, but despite that, I was floor again at the beauty of these caves. Then Guido took us on a little exploration and NOPE IT GOT DARK AND DEEP WATER. It’s an experience. If you ever get the chance to visit a cenote – do it.
We got some time after to dive off the access boards, and Zach and I took a torch to see how deep it got in the main part. It was cool to dive under and bit and swim about with the torch.
We got out, and then made our way back to the villa. What a great day!
doug dot blog... 