This is in the ejido of Canasayab in the state of Campeche in Mexico. Having visited dozens of villages in the state some are more memorable than others. It’s not always related to whether there was something interesting and fun to see/do. It often came down to the simple matter of time and whether I had enough of it to walk around and absorb the surroundings.
Luckily in this village I did and these coconut trees particularly come to mind. They were just behind the local school. I thought it was the coolest school “playground”.
This photo makes me think of these ridiculous “10 places to see before you die” type of posts you see go around the web. More specifically, it reminds me of one particular place I saw in one of these posts, the “tunnel of love” I believe it’s called in Ukraine. The reason I find them ridiculous, is that there is so much beauty to see out there that trying to come up with the list of only 10 best places to see just seems silly to me, and maybe a bit presumptuous.
I have never seen the tunnel of love in Ukraine but this one came out of nowhere on an average road in the middle of nowhere in Mexico. It was by the village called Villa de Guadelupe in Campeche. It’s one of those moments of amazement when you see something you were not expecting even in the slightest. One doesn’t have to follow lists, sometimes the things that awe you the most come out of nowhere. Happy New Year and I wish your 2015 to be filled with such moments.
(Colors disappear for some reason when the photo is enlarged)
I spent a fair chunk of my time in one of the markets in Merida. I love wandering around these sort of places, get away from the sights into the hustle and bustle of daily life. The market was fairly big so I kept getting lost many times over. It wasn’t quite like the markets in many parts of China for example, but you could still find tons of things, from gambling sites to jewelry to thousands of knockoffs and more.
I feel like by now I have a good sense of when’s a good time to have my camera out in sight and when to keep it hidden. Sometimes though when I get interested in a certain way I just forget about the camera in my backpack. Here are photos from the few moments I did have it out.
Gambling seemed to be in demand in many markets around the Yucatan peninsula. Merida being a bigger city had more machines than usual. The guy outside kept eagerly looking at me across the street. I felt it was alright to take my cam out and snap the scene. He didn’t seem to mind.
Despite having spent months in Mexico I haven’t really spent all that much time in bigger cities. Merida is one of the few where I did stay for a little while. It’s in some ways my favourite place I’ve seen in Mexico. As I’ve mentioned in my previous Merida post it makes me feel like parts of the city are stuck in the past. This street is a good example of the impression Merida has left on me. It’s close to the market area, a fairly narrow street full of run down beautiful colonial buildings. Many of them are falling apart and there are a lot of similar buildings around the city. Their condition does give it a certain character and appeal like it’s not trying to impress you, it’s just is what it is. This particular photo has also been my wallpaper for several months now.
I’ve finally spent a few hours going through the Mexican photos from over the summer. Given the experiences I’m surprised I haven’t filled my SD cards 100 times over, but I still captured some interesting memories. This probably being the most relaxing. At the time we’ve been working in small communities on the Yucatan Peninsula and with a weekend off my colleague and I decided to take a last minute trip to Tulum in Quintana Roo.
The first photo is from the cabin we stayed during the 1st night. The latter photo is after hours of driving dirt roads in the national park just south of Tulum, which has, no doubt, been a weekend highlight for me. At the end of the park on the coast side is a dead end with a small village of Punta Allen, living off the coast. It’s been a little tiring getting to the village but has been totally worth it.
Along the road to the village there are a bunch of small openings cleared out by machetes. We took a few out of curiosity until we found one that lead to the isolated beach, on the second photo. I set up my orange hammock, got my book out, we put on our swimming attire and played a game where we own a private beach. While the cabin is sure sweet I think I prefer stumbling across a gem like this. Clearly we weren’t the only ‘smart’ ones as there were some ropes laying around left by previous visitors from over the years. What would you prefer?
This is the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. Apparently there is a church with the same name in India. This one is not quite on the same continent in Hecelchakán, Campeche. Chakan means rest in thhe Mayan language. Though I can’t say that’s exactly what we did, the town did have a calm, stress free vibe about it.
I took these on 2 different occasions, first the black and white version and then the colour version early in the morning. I couldn’t quite decide which one I like more so I’m gonna post both.
