I had the opportunity to participate in two different photography events in Yucatán, México, despite having been here earlier in the spring, and I decided to do them both and combine them into one long trip. It also gave me an opportunity to visit Mexico during the Día de Muertos. My combined trip ended up being about 3 1/2 weeks, which capped off a year of lots of interesting travel.
To take advantage of plane ticket prices, I actually flew in 5 days before my first event, so I had quite a bit of time to acclimate and walk around the Centro region of Mérida. I wasn’t able to book the entire time at my first Airbnb, so I ended up moving to a hotel in the center of downtown. It turned out that that weekend had a big cultural street fair, La Noche Blanca, with lots of varied activities all around the downtown area. The crowd swelled out to right outside my hotel, so I decided to go out and explore it a bit. There was music, dancing, and I saw a cool fashion show that took place in the middle of a major street in front of the grand plaza that was blocked off. It was quite interesting, but it was also quite noisy until late in the night right outside my hotel window. Unfortunately, I suspect that I also picked up a virus that gave me a chest cold that I ended up fighting later in my trip.
Femme Nue — Yucatán
My first photography event of the trip was a Femme Nue retreat, organized by the same people who organized my photography retreat in France. I checked out of my hotel and brought my stuff about 5 blocks to the restaurant where we were meeting up. After a nice welcome lunch, meeting all the models and photographers and family members, we headed out to Hacienda Sac Chich where we would be staying during our retreat. It was about 45 minutes southeast of Mérida. It was a large estate with 5 major buildings and it had lots of interesting places to shoot. In addition to the two organizers, Sienna Hayes and Vivian Cove, we had two other Canadian models to work with, Dane Halo, and Muirina Fae, and there were a half-dozen photographers who were part of the group. I enjoyed my stay and enjoyed the photography. I think I got some very nice shots. The only downside was that it was a bit hot and humid and I had forgotten my headband, but you can’t have everything.
Intermission and Día de Muertos
After the farewell lunch of the Femme Nue retreat, I went to an Airbnb to hang out for a few days. I had arranged to visit my friend Humberto’s new house at the beach, but I still had to work out the logistics of getting there. It also gave me a few days away from people to recuperate from my chest cold. (I got a negative Covid test result before I joined other people). I eventually took a long Uber ride up to his beautiful house, which at the time of my arrival was overrun with photographers and nude models who just happened to be wrapping up their UTadventure tour at his house. It humorously made me think of arriving at the Playboy mansion when I got there. Humberto is a warm and welcoming host, and his house is amazing, sitting right on the gulf coast beach, with numerous guest rooms. After the UTadventure folks departed, there were some models from my Femme Nue retreat and my upcoming UTadventure tour staying there, as well as other friends of Humberto’s.
We didn’t just relax and just hang out at the house. The next day started with breakfast in Motul at a local breakfast spot that just served egg dishes, Doña Evelia Huevos Motuleños. Then Humberto took us to a historic Mayan archeological site Ek’Balam (which was a bit pricy), where we walked around the ruins and climbed up the pyramid. Afterward, we went to a nearby cenote, Cenote X’Canché. This was only the second one I’ve been to, having been to Cenote Chelentún several times with UTadventure. This one was bigger and more open, with a lot of other people there. After a long day, we headed back up to the coast and had a fresh seafood dinner in a small local diner before going back to Humberto’s. Later in the evening, we headed into Merida to the central Plaza (right by where I had been staying earlier) to watch a Día de Muertos celebration, which turned out to be a stage production with traditional music and dancing. Humberto said that the traditional parades had been curtailed due to Covid. The next night we went back to Merida for a nice dinner and then dropped one of the models at the bus station.
The Next UTadventure Tour
Everyone participating in the UTadventure tour was gathered up and we headed into Izamal to get checked in for the next adventure. It started out with a bit of drama as one of our scheduled models bowed out due to some business conflict with Dima (and ultimately we lost one of the photographers who had joined particularly to work with this model). Nonetheless, we got started off with our kick-off lunch and then a late afternoon photo shoot. Compared with the spring tours, it appeared to become darker earlier, and the vegetation was lusher due to the tour coming after the rainy season. The first photo shoot, traditionally at our home Hacienda Santo Domingo, was very atmospheric and worked out great and I managed to get some new low-light images that were quite interesting.
The second day of the tour was a water day. We started out at our traditional cenote, Cenote Chelentún in Cuzamá. By the time we left, it had started raining quite hard (although not cold) and we were all pretty drenched by the time we reached the cars. The afternoon’s shoot was a “beach shoot” back at Humberto’s house. I’m guessing Dima is saving a little money through Humberto’s generosity by not having to rent out our traditional beach location. It was a nice location to shoot though, although by this location we’d already had our one photographer drop out. So the majority of the tour consisted of just two photographers and two models, Meghan Claire and Ivory Flame, both of whom I’d worked with before (including working with them both previously this year) and who are awesome models and nice people. The smaller group turned out to be good for us photographers, as it was kind of like one of the mini-tours with plenty of time to work individually with the models.
The next day we had a mix of ancient and modern. We started the day at the historic archeological site at X’Cambó, which was much wetter and boggier than on my previous visits due to the rains. Then later in the day, we went to Mérida to the beautifully refurbished grand home Casa de las Torres. We had lunch in Mérida before the afternoon shoot and then stayed for dinner there as well. After dinner, we hung out for a bit to see another street show taking place at the central Plaza where they were doing a light projection show on the church again. Afterward, we headed back to Izamal to sleep.
The fourth day was a rest day, so I just relaxed in the morning. In the afternoon we went to Hacienda Aké which is next to another Mayan ruin. We shot around the property as usual, and I was successful in finding some new backdrops, and then towards sunset, we got access to a local horse that the models posed with. That was quite interesting and I was able to get some nice shots. When we were done we headed back to Izamal and had a nice dinner at Restaurante Zamna.
Our original plans got shifted around a bit due to some failed connections and commitments, but the alternatives turned out better from my perspective. The fifth day started early, and it was an interesting trip to the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve where we rode boats through the lagoons and got to see and shoot among lots of wildlife. The first part of the day was fun riding the boats and seeing the natural beauty and wildlife. After that, we ended up at the beach away from the main town to do some beach shots. That’s when I had one of the more amusing experiences of my photography adventures. We were shooting on the beach, and there was a grass-covered structure a little way down the beach. Dima went down to check it out and make sure there was no one there we would be offending. He came back and said they indicated it would be no problem; there were two women and one man and in fact one of the women was topless. So Patric and Meghan headed down and were shooting around them. 
Eventually Ivory Flame and I headed in that direction as well. When we got there we discovered that the one woman wasn’t just topless, but in fact nude. They were also very drunk. They seemed to be enjoying watching us shoot, and the nude woman was really intrigued with Ivory Flame, who is striking with fair skin and bright orange hair. Quite a contrast to the darker Mexican lady. Eventually, it turned out she indicated she might like to join in and have some photos taken. So I ended up shooting her and Ivory Flame and made a few nice pictures that I sent to her. It was a little surreal having one of the local ‘civilians’ join us, but it was a fun and unique experience. After our boating trip, we stopped in town for lunch. On the way back, we explored a location or two near Puente las Coloradas and managed to grab a few shots.
On the last day of the tour we were able to shoot at Hacienda Baspul, which is owned by friends of Humberto. Although I’ve been there once before, I think I was able to find some new shots. They also brought out one of their geese, and we were able to shoot Meghan with it. After the shoot, we had a nice farewell lunch at Casa De Piedra. We had a nice meal and also celebrated Ivory Flame’s birthday.
Wrapping it Up
After the tour, I stayed in Merida for several more days, just walking around again, seeing the sights, and getting some souvenirs. A couple of days before I returned home, I got together with Dima for a nice dinner. Although this was a long 3 1/2 week trip, and it was a little wearing having to deal with my chest cold, I had a wonderful time on this trip. I was able to do lots of satisfying photography with some really wonderful models and experience lots of culture and beauty. I enjoy visiting Mexico, and I hope my next visit down there isn’t too far in the future.
Tonight I again joined Bob for a trip to the opera. This time to the Opera San Jose to see Puccini’s Tosca. This was the first time I had been to Opera San Jose, the first time I’d seen a Puccini opera, and the first time I’d seen Tosca.
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When I signed up with the State Department’s STEP website, I was surprised to find that they had a Level 3 warning, mostly due to violent crime in a variety of areas. I set that aside, but I kept my radar up. Overall I had no problems, but I did have a few very interesting encounters with the locals, who where all friendly but also seemed to be running various games. To wit, I was solicited twice if I was interested in getting any women (once from an employee in the airport), and 4 or 5 times if I was interested in any ‘smoke’. None of these encounters seemed ominous, and the overall feel (at least in the tourist area where I stayed in the hotel) was friendly and colorful … and the speech patterns live up to the characterization — Ya mon.
Tonight I joined Bob in going into the city to see the 
Tonight I joined Bob and went into the city and saw the San Francisco Opera’s production of the brand new Antony and Cleopatra, based on Shakespeare’s play. This opera, which had its world premiere earlier this month, was written by notable local composer John Adams. It has been a long long time since I’ve seen an opera, and I don’t think I’ve ever before seen a modern one or one in English. We drove in and prior to the show we had dinner at Max’s Opera Cafe, and then went and listened to the pre-performance talk.