Soliman Bay

We've arrived at our destination: a spacious house right on the beach at Soliman Bay north of Tulum, Mexico. This time of year the days are warm, but not too hot, and the air is a refreshingly moist relief to my New Mexico desert-parched skin. Nights are slightly cooler and there is a breeze most all the time that keeps the bugs away. It's nearly perfect! What is causing the slight imperfection to this long-awaited vacation is the overabundance of a seaweed that is washing to shore in unbelievable quantities. It's called Sargassum and is a genus of brown macro algae. You may have heard of the Sargasso Sea? It's an interesting phenomenon worth investigating. It's not stopping us from kayaking or snorkeling in the Bay, but I'm reminded of is the saying by Oscar Wilde, "Everything in moderation, including moderation." There's nothing moderate about the quantity this time. As an herbal remedy, Sargassum might be used in tea form to expel phlegm. It seems to be having the opposite effect on me. I seem to be creating phlegm for the Sargassum to expel! What started out as a slight cough is turning rapidly into bronchitis. Wonder what the lesson is this time?

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