The annual AAPG (that is the American Association of Petroleum Geologists) convention was in the middle of April in San Antonio. The last convention I went to was in Houston about five years ago and so I thought it was about time to take the pulse of the profession and see how things have changed. Since participating in a convention is considered training, I have learned long time ago to try to attach a field trip to the three day event. This time I was lucky and was able to get on a six day excursion to Belize to look at the only barrier reef in the western hemisphere.

Our group, led by a professor from Rice University, met at the Houston airport on Monday morning. Not surprisingly it included the usual large contingent of Canadians trying to exchange the snow and ice of the Far North for the sun of the Caribbean. We flew to Belize City and then to a town of Dangriga further south on the coast.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.) From there it was about an hour boat ride to the tiny island of South Water Key, which was to become our home for the next five days. Before we left Houston, a cold front swept down from the north bringing in cooler temperatures reminiscent of early spring and actually quite pleasant. Unfortunately, the same front made it all the way to Belize and the first few days were overcast, windy and rather cold. In fact the water usually felt warmer than the air. The lack of sunshine and choppy sea which stirred up a lot of fine sediment in the water made photography a little difficult. This time I took along only an inexpensive disposable underwater camera which usually works fine but the local drugstore which processed the film did not do a very good job. I was surprised by the range of electronic underwater cameras the other participants had – I had no idea these even existed. It is easy to get left behind these days. Fortunately the trip leader collected photo files from everybody and promised to send us all a CD with the best pictures – so I may end up with a decent record of this trip after all.

Luckily, during the last few days the weather changed and it was sunny and hot, just like it is supposed to be. That made getting into the water a lot more attractive. On our last day we did an over flight of the reefs and at the same time noticed tremendous amount of real estate development all along the coast. Most of it seemed to be large villas (rather than hotels), many of them under construction. It was difficult to tell whether the construction is going on or whether it is being affected by the current housing slow down in the U.S. However, since most of the developments looked like they were well over million dollars, they do not even appear on my radar screen.

I returned to Houston on Saturday and on Sunday drove to San Antonio for the convention. Prices seem to be going up every time I go. The hotel charged me $35 parking per day in addition to the $200 I was paying for the room. Good thing the company is paying. But San Antonio is always charming at this time of the year. The River Walk keeps on getting longer and longer, every time there are more hotels and restaurants. It was amusing to sit in one of the many sidewalk cafes, sip a margarita and watch throngs of visitors engage in the exotic and nearly forgotten activity called "walking".

At the convention, the strange age distribution of people in the petroleum industry was striking. About half of the participants in my age group (i.e. on the verge or within few years of retirement) and the other half still in or barely out of school. Almost nobody in the middle. At nearly $120 per barrel I would say they are entering the profession at the right time, I just hope that the good times will last for them longer than they lasted for us.