Well here we are at day five. The weather yesterday was windy and cloudy. There were five-foot waves beyond the reef crest and two-foot waves in Akumal Bay. No sun at all. A constant 40mph wind blew inland from the sea. Diving and fishing boats remained moored all day. The wind was cooler but was laden with so much water it was hard to breathe. Tabatha and I walked the rocky coastline from Buena Vida, the local cantina, down to Akumal in the morning. This is an interesting piece of coastline with lots of coral fossils, etched limestone and little pools teeming with life. Baby Diadema, tiny hermit crabs and a variety of lizards inhabit this diverse landscape. Waves crashed against the limestone coast sending water flying high into the air. Neat place!!! Unfortunately, we had to end our hike because Tabatha stepped on a pop-top and blew out her flip-flop literally, and we had to go to the inland road, much easier on the feet I spent some time yesterday rewriting this. It is from an unknown author and the translations might not be quite right but here it goes.

The Art of Crystals
Through the freezing process, from water, crystals are created. With clean pure water these crystals form beautiful blossoming flowers. With contaminated water, the crystals do not form at all. They stay in a certain mutated, aggravated state. With tap water, the same mutations occur and again this water, after purification, gains back a lot of its pure qualities. In a lab test, it was proven different types of music effect water. Graphically represented, classic music causes the water travel in soothing waves, actually most types of harmonic and well-combined sounds create this reaction. With heavy metal, hard rock, techno and other heavy beats, the water behaves in drastic contrast. The human body contains almost all water. What happens then when it is exposed daily to all these different influences?

Tabatha and I began our first "real work" today. The organizational stuff is pretty much complete, now we just have to get out and educate people. We spent our first few days exploring, catching up with old friends and meeting new. It was great to see Annalise and Jason, Cornell students from last years tropical marine course. Jason is a TA (teachers assistant) and Anna was working with John Bruno "The Brun" on a continuation of her independent research on coral diseases. She hopes to publish an article about her work. Good luck Anna! And have a safe trip home. Unfortunately in the Akumal Bay Area there is plenty of disease for her to write about. It looks as though many coral formations that we studied last year have been effected by disease, especially black band. It is surreal to see how an environment can change so drastically in one year. Today our plans are to meet with the beach patrol to discuss good locations for my rest stations. CEA has involved the community in a beach watch program. More tomorrow.

Hasta la vista mi amigas y amigos
Steve
Part 4