The last day of our tour began early as we headed to the north coast to the archeological site of Xcambó which contains extensive Mayan ruins. Even though everything seemed to be shutting down in the state, our organizers managed to get us in here early. It is an interesting site, originally built on a swamp (hence lots of mosquitoes). We were lucky to get this kind of private access. We spent a couple of hours shooting here against the unique backdrops.
After the shoot we headed back to our hacienda to clean up, finish packing, and check out. We then headed into Mérida to have our farewell luncheon. We had lunch at Porfirio’s, which is an upscale restaurant in a fairly new mall. When we got there we really saw the effects of the new pandemic rules as the mall was nearly empty, and when we got to the restaurant it was empty and we had to get a health check before we were allowed to enter. Nonetheless, we all got in and had an enjoyable final meal together. After lunch we were all distributed to our various outbound locations.
This was a challenging tour for the organizers, both because of the site shutdowns and the loss of a model mid-tour. Still, they did a great job responding to the challenges. UTadventure in my mind is known for diversity of locations, and this trip we shot at six haciendas, a cenote, a beach by the sea, and an ancient ruins (plus a visit to a second). We missed out on another cenote and wildlife reserve because of the shut-downs, but it was still a wonderful trip with a good bunch of people. I think we all bonded together even more this time around because of the shared anxiety about all the chaos going on in the world outside our little bubble. I, along with many of the others, headed back home earlier than planned because of all this, but the tour itself ran full-term and it was a great trip exploring and experiencing Yucatán.
