Dachs Thoughts

Rather than zoom right out of town after the tour, I decided to stay around for a couple of days in Mérida, just to unwind and see a little of the local culture. I had chosen an Airbnb that looked quite nice and was supposedly fairly close to some of the points of interest. I ended up doing more chilling that sightseeing, but I did do a little. I was the last person dropped off after the tour, and Dimitriy ended up dropping me off after 11 pm after our dinner. It was pretty dark, and I had been given the lockbox codes to let myself in. The street and building didn’t look like much from the outside, but inside was a beautiful courtyard with a fountain and lush vegetation. I didn’t see too much the first night, but it was a beautiful place to stay. My room had very high ceilings, and it was quite interesting in that the tall doors that opened into the courtyard could be partially opened at the top to let air in through barred openings. It looked like an ancient colonial mansion. It also had a pool and a giant kitchen for those so inclined.

In the evening of the first day I headed out to get some dinner at a place I found on Yelp, but I never found it and ended up eating in a nice restaurant. I had gone to an area that seemed more tourist oriented with shops and restaurants. It was quite hot when I was walking, and I neglected to put on any bug spray. That night I discovered several mosquito bites. I don’t know if they got me while I was walking, or when I stopped in a shady ice cream store for some desert. Just like in Hawaii, they seemed to get me at the end of my trip. The last day I just relaxed and looked at some of my photos. I also got to stretch my communication skills by going into a Pharmacy to try and get some mosquito itch cream using Google translate.

We had 10 shoots (one more than planned) at 9 different locations all over Yucatán including several haciendas, a town square in Izamal, a cenote, at the beach, on the water in a nature reserve, and at a Mayan ruins. For the first time I saw a centipede, a (dead) scorpion, I got to touch the tail of a live crocodile in the wild, and I also got to watch a Mayan ceremony led by a shaman. The only downside was losing a bunch of memory cards, luckily none that had pictures on them yet. All in all a very enjoyable, interesting, and relaxing trip.

The last day of the tour was originally planned as an abbreviated day, with one morning shoot ending with a farewell lunch. However, because of our scheduling hiccough at the hacienda, and the interjection of the extra guerrilla shoot, our last day ended up being a fairly long one. We began the day with the originally planned shoot at a Mayan ruins at Xcambó near the north Yucatán coast. We gained entry before the general public which was cool both from the private access aspect, as well as being able to shoot unhindered. It was to some degree in he process of being restored. It was not a vast area, and the pyramidal structures weren’t extremely tall, but it was very interesting. We shot there for a couple of hours, then headed back to our home hacienda to pack up and check out.

On our original itinerary we would have then headed to our farewell lunch, however instead we headed back to Izamal and went to lunch at a nice relaxed Restaurante Zamna (¡Un Sabor Ancestral!). Then in the mid-afternoon we headed back to the special hacienda for our originally planned second shoot. We were able to take advantage of the late day sun shoot outside including in and around the pool, and I was able to get some flash shots in the fountain room with Dasha. After a few hours of shooting, with night closing in, we packed up and headed of to Mérida for our farewell dinner. It was nice and relaxed. We got there a bit late and were the last ones there. It seemed to take the staff as long to figure out how to split the check as it did to prepare the dinner. Finally we all said goodbye, and Dimitriy distributed the last of us to our hotels. I spent a few days chilling out at a beautiful Airbnb not too far from the tourist center and not far from the airport. A very enjoyable trip with a good bunch of people.

The original plan was to spend the entire day shooting at a special hacienda near Izamal. It had been turned into a botique hotel, but it was currently not being used as a hotel. It was beautifully decorated and had great artwork. It had numerous beautiful settings including a pool, and a water / fountain chamber, and the main building had several beautiful rooms. One bedroom had a beautiful staircase up to a second floor area, an one room was painted in an aged yellow/orange that provided the background for some awesome pictures. The original plan was to shoot in the morning for a few hours, then take a break and leave for lunch Izamal, then return and shoot in the later afternoon. However, we got a little change of plans. Apparently the owners were trying to sell the property, and they had somebody coming to view it in the afternoon. Those people wanted to stay the night to check it out, so we ended up not being able to have our second shoot of the day there.

We had a nice lunch in town, then we went downtown at went through a museum of local Mayan folk art. We also walked through the prominent convent of San Antonio de Padua. It is a large dominant structure in the middle of town that looks a bit like a fortress castle. While we were doing this, the models took the opportunity to go to a day spa for a little rejuvenation. After we all reassembled it was nearing sunset, and we decided to go down to the square in Izamal where UT Adventure had made a splash a few years ago with a model shoot, and have a golden hour guerrilla shoot. This time all the models were dressed, so it was more like a fashion shoot. All the locals found it quite interesting and were checking us out pretty good. Some were probably remembering back to the nude shoot a few years ago. After sunset we headed back to our home base, and we were hoping to possibly return to the nice hacienda on the last day.

Flamingos and Shaman. Our forth day was mid-tour and it was supposed to be a gap-day where he had a lighter schedule and could catch a little rest (but as usual, that has to be taken with a grain of salt). As such, we had only one scheduled shoot. Originally it was another hacienda, but as the flamingos were present at a nature reserve, they opted to go there. It was actually a fun outing where we went to the town of Ria Lagartos, and caught some boats that took us out into the reserve, that had a little Everglades feel. We saw a couple of crocodiles, many wild birds including pelicans, egrets, flamingos, and a couple of horse shoe crabs. Eventually we got to a point near some shallow water and sand bars, and the models got out and we were able to shoot them with the abundant wildlife in the background.

After our boat trip we had a nice lunch in Ria Lagartos, then ultimately made our way back to the Hacienda Tepich for the remainder of our break day. That evening Dasha had arranged for an optional event. She had arranged with a Mayan shaman to perform a traditional fire ceremony that allegedly dates back many generations. The shamanic mysticism is aligned with her new age spirituality. I decided to attend just to take in the unique cultural event. It was interesting as we placed some stuff in the fire that smoked, got a maraca, picked a stone. It was all supposed to be opening our wishes and actualizing our dreams.

If day 2 was hacienda day, then day 3 was water day. Our first shooting location of the day was in a cenote. I’ve seen pictures of them for years, but never visited one in person before. We went to Cenote Chelentun in the little town of Cuzama. It was a particularly special location as the cenote was about a mile from where we parked, and we were transported to the cenote on horse drawn rail cars. These small horses trotted along the rail line with amazing dexterity. The cenote itself was very beautiful with amazing colors in the blue green water that took on different character as the light from above changed position. The water was accessed down a somewhat sketchy steep stone staircase that went down 30 or 40 feet. The working space was fairly confined, so the 11 of us were kind of working on top of each other, but I was still able to get some interesting and beautiful shots. After two or three hours of shooting, we got some lunch and returned to our hacienda home for a little rest.

 
Our second location of the day was at a beach in northern Yucatán near San Crisanto, where we had a large cabana and a private area of beach. After my workshop on Kauaʻi I thought maybe I’d seen all the beaches I needed to for a while, but this provided some interesting places to shoot (and some nasty stickers), and of course we had a different group of models to collaborate with. I was able to fulfill a desire to apply some of my recently learned lighting techniques, and I got some nice beach sunset shots with Dasha (with Dima’s umbrella assistance) that were of an iconic style and a bit of a milestone for me.

 
After the sun had set they had arranged for some local fishermen to provide a traditional dinner for us at the cabana, and we got fresh fish, chicken, rice, … It was a great way to finish up the day.

The second day of the tour was a full day of haciendas. The first one was discovered by Dasha during a trip where they were scoping out cenotes as she was trying to answer nature’s call. It was a beautiful property that was in the process of being restored. It was pretty much open to the elements, but had a beautiful layout and various interesting rooms. The laborers seemed to find plenty of excuses to be around the area where we were shooting the models.

 
The second shoot was in a fairly remote area down a long bumpy dirt road. The owner of Hacienda Bolontunil is trying to develop the area and had reached out to Dimitriy after the group’s first bit of notoriety in the media a couple of year’s ago. He wanted to support the arts, and I think also bring some attention to his development project. The main building had some interesting balconies that provided for some interesting shots.

The first day of the tour, just like in Utah, started midday. It was a bit low key as our first shooting location was the Hacienda we were staying in. It gave us all a chance to have an easy morning with a chance to check out the property and scout locations. The main Hacienda building had a lot of character with steps, balconys, and a pool. The property on which it stood was quite large and there were out buildings, horses, rabbits, dogs, and what looked to be a small orchard. It was really quite beautiful. We began with a kickoff meeting were we all got to meet each other and the models. There were seven photographers and 3 models. The seventh photographer was Theresa Manchester, a model/photographer, who was being sponsored by UTadventure, and who didn’t put as much time demand on the models as some of the other photographers. I had worked with Dasha and Kate before, but I got to meet Sienna Hayes who was our third model.

For the second time this month, I set off on another big photography related travel adventure. This was my first trip out of the country in almost 4 years, and the first time I’ve been to Mexico in more than 20 years. It was my first time traveling to the state of Yucatán, Mexico, and I was able to get a taste of the true Mexico away from the major tourist locations. I had a long travel day, leaving home at about 5 am, and arriving in Mérida after 7 pm. I hadn’t realized it, but there were three other guys on our tour that came in on the same flight I did. It took a day to get down there, and I came in a day early (as did everybody else) so I could recuperate before the tour kicked off.

I joined up with the UTadventure team with whom I toured Utah last spring. This time the tour had a fixed base of operations, Casa Vargas Hacienda Tepich, about a half hour from the Yucatán capital of Mérida. It was an old world Hacienda dating to the 18th century, and run by descendants of the original owners. It had been restored, maintaining the original character. It was rustic but very comfortable. Over the course of my stay I saw a giant (and very fast) spider on the wall, and found a centipede in the covers of my bed, but I didn’t let it bother me.