The fifth day of our tour we got another impact from the pandemic driven site closings. We had gotten up early with the plan to go to the second cenote of the trip. When we got there we discovered that all the cenotes had been shut down by government decree. With some quick scrambling, an alternate site at another hacienda was arranged. I was very glad that we at least got to shoot at Cenote Chelentun two days earlier.
When I learned we were going to be shooting at Hacienda Tepich, I was a little underwhelmed as this is where we had stayed last year on the tour, and although it’s interesting and has some beautiful locations I felt I’d already seen it a lot. However, once we got there, driven partially by the fact that we had an entirely different group of models, and the fact that I hadn’t seen it in a year, I actually really enjoyed the shoot. The new model who replaced Sienna, Geraldine Méndez, joined us from her home in Mexico City, and she turned out to be great. I got some nice shots around the property, and I also found an excuse to get in the pool to do some shooting. I guess getting in the water turned out to be a theme for me on this tour. After the shoot we headed back to our home hacienda for some lunch and a little break.
In the afternoon we went to Hacienda Ake which is a large plantation like hacienda adjacent to some Mayan ruins. The grounds has some beautiful plants and flowers and a number of colorful buildings to shoot against. In bending over while getting some shots I managed to strain my lower back pretty painfully, but luckily it must not have been too serious as it was pretty much better by the next day. As the sun was setting the group moved over to the field just next to the ruins and we were able to get some nice golden hour shots with some horses and the ruins in the background. After the shoot we headed back into Izamal and had a satisfying late-ish dinner at Zamna, where I’ve been before.
