The original “we’re back!” post for our recent Cancun trip came out pretty low budget. So let’s try this again…

Michelle (Hoot) and I spent six days in Cancun at an all inclusive resort in the middle of June. The temperatures where a bit wild… I don’t think it was below 85 the entire trip but never into the 90s. The -insane- humidity was the worst part. The door to our room was completely soaked the entire trip, glasses fogged up instantly and you could never feel dry. I couldn’t live in that environment, but I can visit it!

First off, let’s talk reptiles. As in, iguanas. They’re everywhere. On the initial walk to our room we saw two of them chillin’ out by a fountain. There were about three of them on the mini golf course next to our patio. I pet one on the back leg and it took off. Obviously not a fan of interacting with tourists. I guess that was the better option than being bitten. This particular iguana was walking around the jungle at Chichen Itza (which we’ll get to shortly) and he seemed as curious about me as I was him (or her..?)

Ever been to a resort? They look kind of like this:

Yeah, that’s a hot tub in the room. That’s also a booze dispenser in the cabinet. Turn it for a shot of whatever.

The resort is littered with bars and of course everything is free. This particular barkeep tried his best to get me obliterated before we had to get back on the plane home.

A lot of this can occur if you can get your lady out of the damn thing.

Isla Mujeres

On the first day of hotel tours (you have a bunch to choose from) we were on the way to Isla Mujeres for some shopping and hanging out. That translates to Woman Island. God knows why. If you look at a map the island looks like a butcher knife… hmmm… Anyway, to get there we hopped on a bus to Puerto Juarez where we stood on a hot ass beach waiting for our ferry while dudes tried to sell bottled water for six bucks. We found some shade under a palm tree until we could board. It was blazing. Once on the ferry, it was smooth sailing. Pardon the cliche. As you can see in the photo the water in Cancun is definitely blue. See that light blue strip near the city? There was a ton of that near us.

More boating.

OK so… Isla Mujeres looks a lot like the rest of Mexico. Chipped up, to put it nicely. On this particular stretch of beach front real estate, ever single building was abandoned and falling apart. Seems like it might have been nice…. once…

One of my favorite things about Mexico is that situational awareness is absolutely necessary for survival. In the USA there would be caution tape and sidewalk closure signs galore and even then someone might find a way to make some money via lawsuit if they tripped and fell. In Mexico you get one sign, if any, and you better take heed. I almost stepped in that hole at the bottom of the frame while fidgeting with my camera. It was probably 4.5ft deep. Yikes. In Isla Mujeres we bought a legitimate Cuban cigar and some Mexican knockoffs that weren’t totally obvious at the time. Don’t trust -anything- in a sealed container, even if you can see the smoke inside. The legit Cuban was amazing, however.

The ride back to the mainland and back to the hotel involved a ferry and all the worst things about guided tourism. Yes, they were playing Celebration, YMCA and just about every Pitbull song imaginable on repeat the entire ride back. All while squirting tequila into the mouths of the willing, by the way. Oh and of course there were some gay jabs at Ricky Martin.

Chichen Itza

The following day was Chichen Itza. I think I said, “Holy shit” about 1 billion times that day. After years of seeing the documentaries and reading about one of the largest cities in the Ancient Maya world I was on a bus to go see it up close. Said bus ride took 2.5 hours as the site is pretty far from Cancun. There was a lot of jungle to stare on the way.

Speaking of buses…. You can drink Coronas on them. Not bad at all. That little 195 sticker is “Mexican GPS” used for finding the bus you’re supposed to get back onto when it’s time to head back to the hotel. The folks on the left side were a Mormon family in town for a reunion who ended up crossing our paths numerous times. They were nice people.

Holy shit.

This is yours truly standing in front of an ancient residence. Rather rich folks would live in these which were built high off the ground (I’m 6’1 for reference). This particular residence had been restored nicely. Others had not.

The Observatory…. Words cannot express what it’s like to stand in front of this thing. It’s absolutely massive and at one point, it and all the other buildings on site were painted white with red roofs…

Closer.

Big body.

This is the (part Maya) tour guide we had. He was solid and definitely knew the history of his heritage. We’re standing on the side of the largest ancient ball court discovered in Maya civilization. The building with pillars to the back is where the king would sit, watching a game of 6v6 play with an 8-12lb rubber ball that they could only hit with their chest and hips. The teams would try to get the ball up onto the platforms running the length of the field on either side. The team captain would stand on the platform attempting to catch the ball and throw it through a stone hoop 30ft off the ground. At the end of the game, one of the teams was beheaded though it is not clear which. 2011 thinking defaults to the losing team losing their heads, but in Maya thinking, with how religious their lives were, there is a lot of speculation that in fact the winning team was beheaded making the game a rite of passage into Mayan heaven. Watching from the sidelines would have been good enough for me.

This is the side of a palace and another ‘holy shit’ moment when marveling at the construction of the buildings. These stones were brought in from as far as 50-100 miles away, rolled on logs and then chiseled into shape with flint. Ancient scaffolding is believed to have been used for the buildings but for the most part the movement of the blocks entire done by hand. Insane.

The above three images are a burial site. If you were royalty, a priest or a governor, when you passed away you would receive a structure to house your remains. If you were a commoner, you were buried in your family’s backyard.

The granddaddy of it all. El Castillo. This is what people think of when they hear the name Chichen Itza. Words don’t do it justice and neither does this photo. This building is a representation of the Mayan calendar. You’ll have go google it for the gritty details, but to get you started there are 365 stairs leading to the top from all four sides. There are three panels on each side of the stair going up to the top, which only has two, which tie into their calendar. Further, the building is set in such a way that on each solstice a shadow “crawls” down the side resembling a snake body which lines up perfectly with the snake heads at the base of the stairs on one side of the structure. You can see clips of the shadow on Youtube. Unfortunately no one can go up to the top anymore after a San Diego woman fell down all 365 stairs to her death in 2006. Thanks lady, you ruined it for the rest of us.

After what felt like a very short time at Chichen Itza, we got back on the bus and headed home passing a few small towns on the way. Most people fell asleep while others watched Catch Me If You Can play on the monitors above us. It was an incredible experience to see that site up close. Unfortunately there are a ton of merchants who bribe the cartels to let them sell their junk on the grounds of the monument. Any silent moment of introspective thought is interrupted quickly by sales pitches of Maya Calendars, t-shirts and the like for “one dollar.”

As of right now, 11,000 Mayan villages have been uncovered from years upon years of jungle growth. It is believed there are far, far more still undiscovered.

Tulum

On the third day of touristing we headed to a heavily fortified coastal trading post called Tulum. When Europe was in the dark ages, the Mayan civilization was flourishing and part of that came from heavy trading.

Hey, more iguanas!

Tulum is right on the coast. Three walls surround it from the inland side and cliffs that drop roughly 50ft protect it from the east. There’s a beach in between the cliffs which allowed access into and out of the city.

The beach at Tulum.

Tourists.

This is where human sacrifices at Tulum took place. On every important Maya holiday, including that of solstices, a virgin girl who the guides described in English as “the best of the best” (I’m guessing that means “the hot girl”) was brought to this semi-pit where she would be sacrificed to the Sun God. The sacrifice consisted of making the victim stand with their back slightly bent backward. Their back would then be broken with a large rock. The spine when snapped would essentially ‘shut off’ the body so the sacrifice could continue with the victim still alive however not in pain. A knife was then taken across the belly Jurassic Park Raptor style and then they would reach up through the huge cut to pull out the heart from beneath. Oh, religion.

Why not?

The End

That pretty much does it. The rest of the time we were eating for free, relaxing by the pool, drinking a ton, sweating like hell in the humidity, messing with iguanas on the property, meeting random people, watching soccer…etc. I’m not sure if I’d want to stay in a resort again. I will say that it was -definitely- relaxing but I prefer a little more grit in my travel. I don’t think we ever really felt like we were in Mexico aside from that day at Isla Mujeres and of course in the company of the Spanish speaking staff. The photo above is the two of us about fifteen minutes before piling into a car to the airport to head home. It was a great trip that got our curiosity up about other South American countries to visit in the future…

I get stuck in photography ruts far too easily. The latest attempt at digging out was debuted this evening on a ride to a local burrito shop. The burritos aren’t very good and, to be honest, neither is this photo. Flickr forums are full of folks talking about mounting cameras to their handlebars in different ways but I took the primitive (and potentially stupid) route of cinching up a camera strap to near strangulation and letting the camera dangle freely below me.

Of course that was nerve wracking. The images you’re seeing were generated by “looks close enough to me” settings on a Canon 5D body through a Sigma 15mm fisheye. That’s roughly $3000 worth of camera relying on some nylon strap to do its job. Thankfully no mishaps occurred.

On the cool side, the 5D body has all settings facing up so on-the-ride adjustments were pretty simple. These were shot on 400iso, 6.3 at roughly 250-450 and on a 10 second timer so I could get my hands back on the bars after pressing zee button. Of course they were retouched a bit in Photoshop to fix exposure issues.

Not bad for a first run, but these definitely aren’t what I was after. Maybe I’ll try shooting with the 50mm once I get my flat tire fixed…

Cigars, Wine, Dogs, Dinner Parties, Push-ups & Squats, Pick-Up Soccer, Portland Timbers v. Kansas City, Oregon Coast, House Rental, Fireworks, Trying Not To Get Sand In My Camera, Hardcore Relaxing, Finishing A Great Book, Starting Another One, Beers Wrapped In Koozies

Psyched.

“You’ve got to burn straight up and down and then maybe sidewise for a while and have your guts scrambled by a bully and the demonic ladies, you’ve got to run along the edge of madness teetering, you’ve got to starve like a winter alleycat, you’ve got to live with the imbecility of at least a dozen cities, then maybe, maybe, MAYBE you might know where you are for a tiny blinking moment.” -Charles Bukowski

Most of my time for the past six or so months has been spent in either a plane, an airport, the same job in a different city, or a hotel. If you’ve followed this blog you’ve undoubtedly been asking yourself just how many times I can take the same photo of clouds out a window, people lining up to go somewhere or dark, lonely scenes within various Marriott hotels.

So, to change it up on you, whoever you may be, I’m actually home this week and things have been busy.

To keep focus, I hollered at an old pal Justin (His blog hasn’t been updated in forever but you should still check out here: http://partyglob.blogspot.com/ ) who began brewing beer about a year ago. We kept talking about getting together to try some of these home brews which really means I was going to tell him how awesome they are in exchange for, you know, some free beer. Our planning is quite piss poor as we live a whopping four blocks from each other and it took this long. But anyway, before we get too far, this is Justin. Say hello.

OK now that the formalities are over, you should know that Justin is a one of a kind type of guy. Definitely one of the most genuine people I’ve met in a long, long time. And he’s got a ton going on including remodeling a sun room in his house, home brewing, working out all the time, engineering water related civil projects, volunteering here and there, and even salsa dancing.

Anyway, back to the damn beer. We tried a bunch of them as he’s brewed quite a bit. Some stand outs were a Rosemary Kolsch, Flanders, a chocolate red, a wheat and some various coffee brews. Of course I wasn’t thinking about shooting photos when I was amidst slaying brews but I can assure you, they all looked like beer and they were all -awesome-. Definite favorites being the kolsh and the Flanders (between the two I took four bottles home… WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!)

Here we see the neighborhood brewmaster uncapping some more while a beer in the background volcanoes.

Oh, speaking of volcanoes… Justin’s parents were camping when Mt. Saint Helens blew up in 1980. And they just so happened to save some ash which Justin now has.

Weird, right? That’s not all. How about this celebratory Portland Trailblazers championship 7-Up bottle from the 70s?!!?! Red Hot and Rollin’.

Anyway… this post is losing focus quickly. The point is Justin’s home brew is solid and most of you are unfortunately never going to taste it. Sucks to be you!

I’ll leave you with a photo of the man and his bottles. It’s a beautiful thing.