Acid Toes

For the past two months I've had an annoying problem with cracked and sore skin between my toes. It comes and goes and even almost disappeared for good after a week at Zipolite during Semana Santa so I'm thinking the problem starts from the heat and my choice of footwear. Zipolite has softer sand than any of the beaches here in Huatulco but more importantly, I'm bare foot most of the time there. Here at school, I'm wearing shoes and they get pretty swampy by the end of the day. I'm making it a point to take them off in the classroom now but I usually forget.

I'm fairly zen with the heat down here. It doesn't really bother me that much but I sweat an incredible amount. Lunch hour is from one o'clock to four. I change from the shirt and tie to shorts, short sleeved shirt and sneakers for the ride back and forth on my bike. The ride back in the afternoon is the hottest. Best to avoid carrying anything on the back for that trip. I don't sweat too much until I reach the school and then, as soon as I drink my my first half liter of water, it all gushes out my pores like a cartoon character shot full of bullet holes. Every inch of me is slick. My clothes are saturated. A quick washdown in the bathroom, a change of clothes and I'm ready to go. For all that, I don't think I even smell that horrendous. A minimum of three cold showers a day goes a long way.

Every time I have one of those full body sweats, I think of all the toxins that must be being purged. Here's hoping that will give me an extra edge of protection against this potential pandemic of swine flu.

I first heard about it from Mike last Friday. I was giving exams last Thursday and Friday and I was suddenly more aware of how many of my students were sniffly with colds. This is not unexpected. Lots of students get sick around exam time. They stay up late trying to catch up on everything at the 11th hour. Their immune systems drop and little flus circulate everywhere. But Friday, after hearing the news from Mike, I noticed every little cough, especially how many of them used their exam papers to cover their big fat wet sneezes.

Once all the exams are finished, the pressure is on to get them all marked and the grades passed in to the head office so I took them all home with me on the weekend. And never touched them. I watched movies and went to the beach instead. Which is fine because that will give all the sneezes of death a chance to dry up and die. And the pressure is off as well. Students have been sent home all over the country. UMAR just got the word today. This could be for a long time. I can take my time. I'm just glad the exams are finished and we can all have a fresh start when we get back. Until further word, teachers and support staff will remain on the job but it's a much safer job for everyone now that the crowds of students aren't around. Here's hoping all of our students return safely, happy and healthy.


I finally made it to one of the prime beaches for seclusion last Sunday, Playa Violin. I've heard good things about it from others before and even went looking for it one day but failed. This time my friends were there ahead of me and their scooters marked the trail. It's a well hidden place that not too many people know about.

The trail is a bit steep and slippery with that fine mountain sand that turns into wrestling mud at the first drop of rain. Definitely inaccessible in the rainy season. There is an official park sign on the shore but no indication of anything by the road. It's one of the beaches that gets most of its traffic from charter tour boats and lucky locals such as ourselves.

When I first arrived, there were only my friends there, splashing and tossing a frisbee, like it was our private beach. We had the place to ourselves for hours. I looked around for some obvious reson for the name of the place, like a musical curve to the shore but there wasn't anything like that. A cave on the left, beyond where it would be wise to swim, gets a big wave now and again and spits it back out harder that it went in. Matt thinks it might make a musical note under certain current and wind conditions. We'll see. This won't be our last trip there.



Not much else to say. We did the expected: swam; snorkeled; maintained our intake of fluids and took lots of underwater pictures. That doesn't mean a ton of those pictures turned out. It's hard to even tell if the camera is turned on sometimes. I kept diving to take a video of these manta rays and people were diving to provide a bit of motion but the camera was set to compact mode and everything came out like an old vhs tape printed from an overexposed print.




Alright. Just got the word. We've all been released from work (with pay) until at least the sixth of May. It seems the Mexican government is taking this health situation very seriously. But don't worry about this kid. I lived through SARS in Toronto and I'll be sweating like crazy every time I get on my bike.
Adios. Good health to all