In the summer of 1991, cholera spread like wildfire through the Acapulco slums, but the tourist industry quashed all mention in the local press so as not to tarnish further the allure of its blighted beaches. To find out more about coastal development in Mexico, you can go to Anthony Higgs' page on Cancun . The Yucatan Peninsula has an interesting geology. A thin layer of soil covers limestone bedrock. Rain which falls on the peninsula seeps through the limestone, eroding it into caves.
Rain collects in the caves and flows underground to the sea.
Therefore the peninsula has almost no surface water except for the cenotes, small surface openings on the underground caves. A large part of the challenge of farming in the Yucatan is finding ways to cope with the shortage of water for crops. A lot of the Yucatan peninsula is covered with jungle. Savannah covers the drier areas. Along the coast is a system of coral reefs that form the largest coral reef chain in the world.