Blog Adventurer heads South

Baby Loggerhead turtle

It's hard for me to believe that I'm leaving for Mexico in less than a month (27 days)! My flight is booked: I'm flying out of Buffalo with US Airways on Tuesday, May 6, arriving in Cancun at about 3:30pm. We make one stop-over, in Charlotte, NC (on the way back, flying with United Airlines, we stop once in Washington before heading on to Buffalo). My friend Patricia, a geologist who has been to the Akumal area several times to do water and cave research, is not actually leaving at the same time as I am, but there is always a chance she might come down later in May. I will have to rely even more on my minimal grasp of Spanish. I understand many key words and phrases but only if someone speaks to me slowly or I see it in writing. After nearly a dozen trips to Cuba, and an Intro university course, you'd think I would have picked up more, but I get lazy and don't make the effort. I'll take my mp3 player with me and listen to the Berlitz lessons I downloaded on it...

There has been no further email convo between me and Paul Sanchez-Navarro, the director of CEA (since last December), about what form my volunteer work will take, but I'm quite prepared to do administrative [office] work, or go out with the turtle volunteers at night. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I would rather be involved with the turtles themselves, despite my original hesitation (due to the fact that the work is done through the night). I was concerned about what I would store my snorkelling fins in when travelling: my large MEC backpack probably won't accomodate my long fins. But Trish suggested taping them together and bringing them on the plane as a "personal item". Problem solved. My landlord is paid up until the end of the summer, cable cancelled, bills prepaid, and I will ask a friend to pick up my mail. Scooper is going to Dundas to spend the weeks with my Mom & Dad and their cat, Tina. She's been given plenty of warning, but I think she's become even better at tuning me out in her old age. Cats. Why do I even try??


I think I'll be okay with the food: there's lots of different types of fruit (stuff with a peel is best, otherwise it should be washed or even disinfected, someone told me), eggs, tortillas, beans, rice, advocados, salsa. mmm. My pesos are in at the bank so I'll pick them up tonight on my way home.

On locogringo.com, I found a webcam that displays a section of Akumal beach, just nearby the restaurant/beach bar named LOL-Ha (cam is set up there).

locogringo has some helpful maps:
satellite photo
Central Akumal map (aerial beach tour)

I'll write again soon...

Tam