Seamail No. 3 part 1

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Seamail No. 3

Hola family and friends!

Quite a bit has occurred since our last communique, so perhaps we'll just jump right in? Yes.

Perhaps the most important thing to mention right off the bat is that as of yesterday, the 29th of August, Liza and I are certified open water scuba divers. The story: two weeks ago (or so) we went snorkeling with Almost Heaven Adventures, and their guide, Russ on the nationally protected coral reef that is about 400 ft. off the shore of Puerto Morelos. Russ is an american from various places around the west, and who seems to own property in just about every western state and Mexico. He's very nice, though one wouldn't exactly classify him as soft-spoken, and is very interested in all ecological efforts in the area (and indeed, in most places.) He offered to help us get our scuba certification so that we could dive down to see some turtles at a reduced price. Basically we just had to pay for the refills of the tanks for our dives and for the boat captain to take us diving. Along with his partner, a mexican man named Enrique, Russ is attempting to bring more tourism to Puerto Morelos, preferably the ecotourism kind. The main aim seems to be to convince the local population that they can make as much money from tourism as they can from fishing, which is the overriding economic activity of the town. Since the reef is the main tourist draw to this town, the fact that so much fishing takes place here could have disastrous effects on the tourism industry because the more fishing that takes place, the more the reef deteriorates. The reef system that this particular reef belongs to is the second largest in the world, so it's very important to protect it. Ecologically minded people like Russ are important in this town because the Mexican government does very little to protect this reef. At any rate, it's been a beautiful place to learn to scuba dive.    We've been to four dive sites, and each one has been unique and amazing. Highlights include two giant sting rays, a forty foot tall wall of coral at a place aptly named 'the wall,' and just the general biodiversity of the place. Schools of thousands of fish. Giant crabs and lobsters. Amazing tunnels of coral to swim through. We're hoping, before we leave, to go on a dive to a sunken ship just north of here. It was purposely sunk there a few years ago to encourage regrowth of the reef, and it's supposed to be a beautiful dive site. It's amazing just being able to breathe underwater, but doing it while seeing these beautiful things is more than we could have hoped for.

Other than that, life has settled into a bit of a pattern for us here in Mexico. Every few days we get the idea to head down the coast to see some of the other towns and tourist destinations. Buses here are pretty cheap and reliable, so it's easy to get from place to place once you get to the bus station, which could be a little closer. Last week we took a day trip to Playa del Carmen, which is probably our favourite place so far, and is considered the European Cancun. This month is evidently the month for Italians to visit, and we could certainly tell the difference immediately. The beaches in Playa are beautiful, with no seaweed anywhere and large rocks in addition to perfectly white sand. The surf there is better than Puerto Morelos, for whatever reason, and we really enjoyed our day there. In Playa is also the closest and most easily accessible large grocery store. Incidentally it's named after St. Francis of Assisi, who was my favourite saint in grade school when I had to do a project on saints. I think he would find it interesting that a store bearing his name sells computers and stereos in addition to copious amounts of food. As mentioned before, the bakery departments of large stores here are amazing. At San Francisco de Assis, we bought two croissants, each as big as both hands, and very tasty, for about 30 cents American.

continued on the next journal (hence, our way to get more pics up.)....