Dachs Thoughts

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.

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.

The fourth day of the tour was a gap day where had only one planned shoot with some time to get a little rest. This is when the government actions to fight the pandemic started to catch up with us. We had planned to leave early in the morning to shoot at the wildlife reserve at Rio Lagartos, the site I got the amazing pictures of flamingos and other seabirds last year. However, we learned that it was closed down by government order and no boats would be allowed to leave. They had also closed the beaches, so we were lucky to have gotten our beach shoot the previous day. We switched plans and instead of a morning shoot, we planned for an afternoon shoot at a beautiful nearby hacienda.

Since we had the morning free, I decided to take a walk into downtown Izamal to get some cash and do a little sightseeing. I was joined by a couple of the other photographers. After a bit of a challenge bouncing back and forth across the main square in order to find an ATM, we decided to go check out the Kinich Kakmó pyramid. Walking along the streets a local trinket vendor showed us through his house right across the street from the pyramid sold us some carved jaguar heads, and told us we could climb the pyramid if we wanted. I think we ended up going up the non-standard way, but it was pretty cool. It provided a beautiful view overlooking Izamal. The pyramid was built around 400-600 A.D., and described as one of the most important constructions of Mesoamerica. It was dedicated to an important local solar deity “the fire macaw with the sun face.” Later we learned that some other tourists from our hacienda had been turned away when they tried to go up the normal entrance as it was the kind of place being closed down to tourists due to the pandemic. Nonetheless there were a bunch of people up there when we got to the top. I’m glad I made this unexpected side trip since I was in the area.

As we got ready to leave for our afternoon shoot, we learned of one more impact of the pandemic driven rule changes. One of our models, Sienna, is a Canadian citizen who lives in the US, and they had just announced they were about to close the US border to non-citizens. So to be able to get back home, she had to abandon the tour to try and get back into the US immediately before the borders closed. It was sad to lose her from our group, but there was an unexpected upside. Dasha graciously chose to model for us on our afternoon shoot, and they were able to find a replacement Mexican model for the remaining shoots, who turned out to be terrific. So over the course of the tour, I ended up getting to shoot with five different models.

The afternoon shoot was at the beautiful boutique hotel Hacienda Sacnicte where we had shot on two occasions last year. It has beautiful artwork and numerous beautiful locations to shoot in. So while I was disappointed at not getting to the wildlife reserve, it was nicely mitigated by this beautiful shooting location and the opportunity to shoot with Dasha again. After the shoot wrapped, we headed back to our home hacienda for another delicious meal.

Our second full day of shooting was a water day. We had an early start, and we headed towards Cuzamá to shoot at Cenote Chelentun where I had also been last year. It has a unique entry bringing the visitors by horse drawn cars along a bumpy small gauge railway. After the fun initial ride, the cenote itself provided amazing colors and backgrounds to shoot against. Even though I’d seen it once before it really is a breathtaking location. I had brought my old Olympus point-and-shoot with an underwater housing, so after a couple of hours shooting with my DSLR, I took the plunge and got in the water and tried to get some underwater pictures of Sienna. The pictures turned out fair. I hadn’t shot this camera in 10 years, and the old technology, plus the low light, plus my lack of remembrance of all the controls led to some fuzzy shots. But it was still fun to try out. I also found I was very buoyant in the water, either due to the minerals in the water or my fat content.
[More pictures on my Photo Blog]

After the shoot we stopped in the area to have lunch at the same restaurant we visited last year, Parador Tourístico Acancéh, a place with a large open area with a high thatched roof that stays cool even in warm weather. We had a tasty and relaxing meal before heading to our afternoon shooting location.

The second shoot of the day was on the beach on the north Yucatán coast in San Crisanto along the Gulf of Mexico. This location has some beautiful colors and foliage, and access to the sea as well as some nice cabanas to relax in. After some initial shooting I again took the opportunity for the second time this day to get in the water and have a little swim. The water was nice and warm. As the golden hour appeared I did some more shooting. As the sun set, most of the models made their way into the surf and we got some nice shots in the water with the fading colors of the setting sun. After we wrapped, we went back to our cabana and had a delicious meal catered by a restaurant from the local village, which had some nice fresh fish and a variety of Mexican foods. Little did we know that we had just squeaked by this day by getting into a cenote and onto a beach. A very enjoyable day, and some nice photography too.

The first full day of shooting on our tour was houses and haciendas. The first was a beautiful Mexican style house in Mérida, that had been restored and was being used as a residence and rooms for vacation rental, Casa de las Torres. It had a lot of beautiful interior rooms, a pool, and a second floor roof area with some beautiful shooting locations. With 7 of us shooting 3 models we did a little tripping over each other, but it was a beautiful location for shooting, providing opportunities to get a lot of different looks. I think it was actually somewhat close to where I stayed my first night in Mérida, but it was a bit hard to tell as the local street directions required us to circle round and round to get to the house.
[More pictures on my Photo Blog]

After the shoot, we had nice relaxing lunch at a restaurant in a modern mall in Mérida, Tatemar. After lunch we headed out into the wilderness on a bumpy dirt road to the second site of the day, Hacienda Bolontunil near Chumayel. This was very much the same as when we shot here last year, but apparently they guy who is leading the effort to develop this area is very close to getting some real roads into the area. It was nice to have some familiarity with the site as I knew what it offered and it gave me a better opportunity to think about what shots I’d like to get. We stayed here till after the sunset, and got some nice images in the last light of the day.
[More pictures on my Photo Blog]

After the shoot we trekked back home and had dinner there. The meals at Hacienda Santo Domingo were all prepared by the owner’s wife, and they were all delicious.

The first day of our Yucatán adventure started off with the traditional midday meet-and-greet kickoff lunch at our hacienda. We had three great models and there were six photographers. In additional, we were joined by another photographer/facilitator, Humberto Patrón, who was the godfather of the Yucatán UTadventure tour and who was an amazing professional photographer who had shot for many magazines including National Geographic and Playboy. He was great to have on the trip in terms of helping to adjust to the obstacles that came up, but also assisting and inspiring some of the photography. It was a bit intimidating though to see some of his images, but I have to continually remind myself not to compare myself with other photographers, but just with myself. But he did help set the bar high.

After our lunch and meetup, our first shoot was around the grounds of our hacienda. It was very picturesque with lots of nice locations to shoot against.
[More pictures on my Photo Blog]

After just a few days at home following my Kauaʻi trip, I set off very early in the morning on a trip to Yucatán, Mexico. This would be my second trip here in as many years, and my second trip outside the country this year. My flight was so early the bus didn’t start early enough to get me to BART on time, so I had to take an Uber. I got to the airport in plenty of time and spent the day traveling. I had gone to Mexico a day early to give me a little time to acclimate before the tour. I stayed in a nice Airbnb run by a chef from the Bay Area and her Yucatánian husband. It was in the same general area as the place I stayed after last year’s tour. I arrived in the early evening but didn’t really have time to do any exploring.

Rather than getting picked up at my Airbnb, I was asked to make my way back to the Mérida airport to join up with some of the other participants. I was just a very inexpensive 10 minute Uber ride to the airport. Three of the six photographers had arrived on that morning’s flight, and Dima and Dasha picked us up and we headed out to Izamal and Hacienda Santo Domingo, our base of operations for the tour week. The tour didn’t officially start till noon the next day, but it was nice to get settled in early and be able to relax before the tour. I took the opportunity to walk to downtown Izamal that evening, do some sightseeing, and take some pictures. I also had a nice meal at Kinich, a good restaurant with authentic Yucatán cuisine.