An expedition to Mexico as both a parent and a teacher!

This summer, I had the absolute privilege of taking a group of students on an Opwall trip to Mexico; to say we had the time of our lives is an understatement, but the icing on the cake for me was that as well as taking a group of fantastic students that I have taught, one of them was also my daughter.

If I’m honest, I was quite apprehensive about the trip, its an unbelievably huge responsibility taking young people to the other side of the world, and despite having travelled a lot in my twenties, having four young children myself has meant its been a while since I’ve been on this type of adventure myself.

My colleague and I “what if’d” every scenario we could think of, and prepared ourselves for having quite a tough two weeks, potentially looking after children who were out of their comfort zone and needing a lot of pastoral care. How wrong we were.

From the moment we arrived in Cancun airport the level of care, communication and organisation from the Opwall team and the travel companies that they use in-country was second to none. After travelling for 2 days by plane and bus, with an overnight hotel stay in Cancun, we arrived in the jungle in Calakmul, tired, excited but apprehensive about the week. The moment we stepped off the bus, all apprehension vanished, we were greeted by the most welcoming, friendly group of people we could imagine, I don’t think all the students were even off the bus before we knew that this trip was going to be fantastic . Within the first 5 minutes of being at camp, the students loved being there; we heard whispers of “it’s so nice, I didn’t think it would be this nice here”. Even at that early stage the calm, peaceful atmosphere of the camp permeated through us all. After a camp tour and introduction to the staff and scientists, we already felt at home – by that evening two of our students had said ” I could live here when I’m older” and ” I want to come back and work here one day”.

After our evening meal (delicious, as was all the food throughout the two weeks) we already felt at home. The first week in the jungle flew by, we were straight into life as conservation scientists the next morning, off on surveys at the crack of dawn, following the inspirational scientists and gawking at spider monkeys overhead and cane toads at our feet! There was plenty of downtime in the day, which the students filled with playing cards, chatting to the scientists, and drawing – at one point we had fourteen teenagers sitting chatting and drawing the animals they had seen – many of them said that not being around anyone with access to their phones was absolutely game changing for their mental health. Despite all of the incredible wildlife and people that we encountered over the 2 weeks, one of my highlights of the trip was just being in the peace of the camp in the jungle, seeing the students being the best versions of themselves.

There were plenty of tears (myself included) when we left Calakmul at the crack of dawn a week later, and I genuinely can’t thank the Opwall staff enough for providing us with that experience – seeing my daughter, who has wanted to work with wildlife since she was 4 years old, in this environment was probably one of biggest privileges I will ever have.

At this point we still had a week to go, and sad as we were to leave the jungle, we were incredibly excited to be spending another week in Mexico, this time on the coast at Akumal. For me, this incredible experience just kept getting better, as we stepped off the bus at the accommodation i

n Akumul and I came face to face with Liv, an incredible young woman who had been in my first ever form class as a newly qualified teacher 20 years ago – Liv is now the site manager at the Akumal site! Our second week in Akumal was also incredible – the staff again provided outstanding welcome and care to us all, ensuring on a daily basis that everyone was happy, healthy and busy!

Again, watching the students thrive and overcome challenges while snorkelling and learning to dive was such a pleasure and privilege – all the while guided and facilitated by an inspirational group of Opwall staff and scientists who gave them just the right amount of support and independence at every stage.

One of my reasons for writing this was to give a parents’ view of what to expect if your child is going or thinking of going on an Opwall trip, and to allay any worries anyone might have. I would not hesitate in recommending it – I genuinely felt that my daughter was safer in the jungle in Mexico with the set up that was provided by Opwall, than it is being a teenager here at home (even living in the quiet location of North Wales).

We were looked after like kings, whether it was a broken zip on a tent, a headtorch running out of battery, a headache or a rash (always heat rash!), or just feeling a bit tired and out of sorts, the Opwall staff gave us first class care.

The only downside to the whole trip is that, as a parent of 4 children, I cannot fairly offer such a transformative opportunity to one and not the others, so feel I will be spending the next few years saving to try to send the others on the trip of their lifetimes!

Written and title photo by Jennifer Wells, Ysgol John Bright School