Dachs Thoughts

On the last day of the tour we got up early to head to the usual final location, the Mayan ruins and archeological zone at Xcambó, which dates to the third century AD. This is a special location to be able to shoot in, but I haven’t really cracked using it as a backdrop for model photographs. We got there early and shot for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, Kate wasn’t feeling great. Afterward, as we headed back to the Hacienda, we stopped by the property where Humberto is building a new house on. It’s going to be an amazing place. We then headed back to the Hacienda Santo Domingo to pack up and check out. We then headed into Mérida for our farewell dinner at La Recova. I ended up having what turned out to be a huge piece of meat, and I’m happy when they forgot to bring a take-away box because it would have been too much to deal with.

As we prepared to disperse, some of the guys who were leaving the next day were taken to get a Covid test ant a less expensive place that Humberto knew. Ultimately we were all dispersed to our new domiciles to rest after a nice tour. I returned to my starting Airbnb where I would spend another four days exploring Mérida.

As we had scheduled the front end of the tour heavy with shoots, the last three days were single shoot days, so Day 5 turned out to be easy-paced. We took it easy in the morning and had lunch in Izamal at Kinich. We had originally planned to go to Hacienda Bolontunil, which is under restoration by a buddy of Dima’s, and which I have been to a couple of times. However, the connections weren’t made and Humberto managed to hook us up at a modern place close to Mérida, Hacienda Baspul. It has a lot of beautiful shooting locations on the grounds and multiple buildings that provided great settings. This was another property that seemed to be available to rent out, and it was quite nice. I managed to get shots at a number of spots, as well as catching some golden hour light. After the shoot we had dinner at a chain-like restaurant, Los Trompos, which was pretty good. Then we headed back home for some rest.

The pace on Day 4 slowed down a bit with only one location, but we still had to get up early to go out to Ría Lagartos. This is a biosphere reserve that I’ve been to once before, with some nice boat rides and lots of wildlife including crocodiles and many birds, particularly flamingos. This was a fun day, traveling on the water, seeing and photographing the wildlife, and shooting the models in some beautiful locations. Unfortunately despite lots of sunscreen, I still got a bit burnt due to jumping in and out of the water. I didn’t quite get the dramatic shots like I got last time, but I still managed to get some cool shots with flamingos in the background. After we got back to shore, we had a nice lunch at El Perico Marinaro on the wharf. After our lunch, we headed back home to rest and relax a bit. In the evening, we went in to Izamal for dinner at a nice restaurant in the back of a store, La Casona. As this was a bit of a festival week in Izamal, they were setting up for some live music in the restaurant as we were finishing dinner.

Day 3 involved two properties, one more historic and one a bit more modern. In the morning we shot at an older hacienda property in Pixyá, which is being somewhat restored. As was the case the last time I was here, the grounds workers seem to migrate towards where the models are posing while we are there. The site is in a small conservative town and is marked by its red facades. It has some interesting features such as a small chapel and some large windows with bars that make for some good shots. It also has an old dried up cenote on the property.

In the afternoon we shot at a beautiful house in Mérida, Casa de las Torres, which is being used as an upscale rental. It has been upgraded since I was last there, with some beautiful spaces. It has a lot of modern artwork made to look like older paintings, secretly featuring the faces of the current owners. After the shoot we came back to a nice dinner at Hacienda Santo Domingo, which we didn’t have enough of on this trip as the food is always delicious.

Day 2 of the tour was a water day. We began with a trip in the morning to the beautiful Cenote Chelentún in Cuzamá. This is the third time I have been here, and it is always beautiful. It is particularly special due to the way in which the visitors are brought to the cenote by small rail cars driven by horses. The water is a beautiful blue color and the light from above shifts bringing in different illuminations. This year I brought my GoPro to try some underwater shots. I was somewhat successful, but I still need to learn it’s operation a bit better. After the morning shoot we came back Izamal and had some lunch in town.

After lunch we headed to the north Yucatán coast along the Gulf of Mexico, to the beach in San Crisanto. It has some nice scenes with palm trees and thatched huts, separated from the beach by a wall of vegetation. At sunset there was a scramble for beach space as we all seemed to be shooting across each other, even though there were fewer photographers that usual. Nonetheless, I managed to get some nice beach shots.

Our tour group was a little smaller than usual. We only had two models, Meghan Claire and Kate Snig, and four photographers. The first photo shoot of our tour was at our home base at Hacienda Santo Domingo. Everyone had arrived the day prior to the official start of our tour, and we had only one opening where we had no other guests at the hotel when we could shoot on the property, so unlike with previous tours we started in the morning rather than waiting until mid-day to kick off the tour. It was a good beginning to the tour. Since we had only two models, there was a little less fluidity to moving around and getting different shots, but everything worked out ok.

Since we started the tour early, we did a second photo shoot on the first day at Hacienda Ake in the afternoon. I had shot here before, and it appeared to be in a little rougher condition since our last visit two years ago. It is the hacienda located next to some ancient Mayan ruins. There were some nice shooting locations, and this time I didn’t strain my back here. On our way home, just after sunset, we had an unexpected adventure. Just after we left the hacienda, the transmission in the van started disengaging and wouldn’t shift gears. Dima had to nurse it a lot just to climb the mild climbs and get back to the main road. In the meanwhile, Meghan was talking with the rental company trying to get some assistance. We eventually hobbled into the small town of Tahmek and stopped at the town square, where Dima had planned to meet with the rental company person. They eventually sent us back home in a taxi, and ultimately the rental company gave us a replacement van. Fortunately, it didn’t interrupt the tour, but it did cause us to miss dinner. Overall, a lively first day of the tour.

It’s been a while since I’ve experienced some photography and travel adventures, so it was nice to finally get back to exploring Yucatán, México. This was a long-delayed trip that was originally planned for a year ago, but which was postponed due to Covid. The trip began very early, and I had to take an Uber to get to BART (which have apparently become very expensive in the era of high inflation, particularly in gas prices). I spent the day traveling, and due to a delay in Houston arrived late in my accommodations in Mérida. I arrived a few days prior to the UTadventure tour in order to acclimate myself. I was reasonably close to the central downtown area and was able to walk there and do sightseeing and exploring for restaurants. Due to my time-restricted eating diet, I declined the breakfast offered by my host, which turned out to be a bit of a challenge as I had to walk a mile or so every day to find some restaurant to eat at. In the end, I discovered several nice places to eat.

After a few days of relaxing and exploring the downtown, I met up with Dima back at the Mérida airport, where he was picking up the van for our tour. We headed out to Izamal and Hacienda Santo Domingo, our base of operations for the tour week. He later returned to Mérida to collect some of the later arriving participants and I used the opportunity to explore downtown Izamal. They were setting up for a festival the coming week, and I had a nice dinner at Kinich, a good restaurant with authentic Yucatán cuisine that I was familiar with.