Stephen Marsh first visited CEA as a Cornell student the summer of 2001. He returned in June, 2002 as a CEA eco-tourist. Read about his adventure.

Subject: Hello from Mexico

Well here it goes, I arrived at BWI airport almost 3 hours early. When we got to the front of the line the ticket taker for Continental airlines took one look at the pile of stuff that we were carrying, on two carts I might add, and said, "you cannot carry all these packages" we argued to no avail. Some new rule, due to 9/11, that was not mentioned in all the consultations with airline officials forced me to rethink the whole process. Thanks to Bill and Samantha who kept me level headed and who also volunteered to UPS the remaining items. Do you think I was pushing it with 13 items between two people? Well we managed to talk them into transporting 10 with 2 costing $100 each. I guess this was all for a good cause. The story continues with the transport of chemistry supplies for coliform water testing in Akumal, Mexico. When I got to the Red/Green light customs in Cancun I received similar looks to what the airline agent had given me in Baltimore. The Mexican government wanted taxes for the $1500 dollars of supplies, 25% can you believe that? I refused to pay telling them this was a donation for Centro Ecologico Akumal that I had already paid enough and did not have any money left. They finally let me go! I never got to push the button that changed the light to green or red, but several officials in the back office scrutinized me. You know they never opened the box. Well we are here. It has been terrible weather with some kind of tropical depression sitting off the coast. The days before we arrived this storm produced 50 mph winds and 13 inches of rain. The Cornell students this year have only been in the water 6 times in two weeks and visibility is terrible.

Mosquitoes are in heaven breeding in huge puddles all around. I will continue to keep in touch with everyone and hope all is well in the US.

Hasta la vista,
Esteban Marsh

to read Part Two click here