Day 3: Valladolid to Tulum

Sorry about not posting guys ... Sunday was a very busy day, running everywhere to get the last sights in before 5:30pm when the bus left for Tulum. I do have a lot of pics to share! There was just so much that happened, so putting it all down in detail would take hours... suffice it to say, I hit multiple cenotes, Ek-Balam, another series of Mayan ruins and ate a whole tonne of amazing street food! Enough said.. bring on the photos!

Ek-Balam as seen from the top of the main temple

X´chachen Cenote at Ek-Balam

Samula Cenote

Fresh tortas made with pork

Soren and I eating those tortas!

Day 2: Valladolid and Chichen Itza

The camera issue is finally sorted out! Lucky thing too as I filled my SD card already and had to drain it today! LoL! Today was a whopper of a day. Started early at 6am, woken by the roosters in the neighbourhood, which was quite cool! Went for a coffee americano and headed to the local Mercado to have breakfast, which ended up being tamales with chicken and beans and included salsa fresco! Yummy!

It goes without saying that I went to Chichen Itza today. I literally had the pyramid to myself for near to every picture I took as the crowds from Cancun had not started to arrive yet, which I was immensely thankful for! I got a lot of great shots, but shooting in raw format really limited how many photos I could take. I think I ended up with around 100 or so, since the raw format shots are around 10 megs each. Its all good ... the backup camera has 8 gigs free and takes great photos too! Yes, there will be some today! After Chichen, I went to Ik?Kil Cenote and swan in the sinkhole with a fucktonne of catfish. Even got some photos and videos of that - and yes, the underwater mode on the camera works the charm! Bring on the dive at Tulum! :)

Spent the rest of the day chilling around town hunting down a few more sights and the elusive torta, of which I had 3 - 2 chicken ones and 1 pork. So yummy! 14 peses each, so like $1.10 canadian. Three tortas is about the size of a large baguette - yeah, I am a pig! What will tomorrow bring? Not sure, but I do know you're ready for photos, right? Here they are.

Me at Chichen Itza - See? The place was empty!

Segunda Cenote at Chichen Itza

Me jumping into Ik-Kil Cenote!!!

The catfish swimming in Ik-Kil

Okay kids, thats it for today... gotta go and relax for the next few days of amazing adventures! If Im not online tomorrow, dont worry - Ive got the transit from Valladolid to Tulum, and it'll likely be late, so I may not find internet right away. If thats the case, I will find one first thing Monday morning. Hasta Luego Amigos!

Day 1: Cancun to Valladolid

I am really tired and sweating like mad ... its about 34 degrees here! Spent most of the day walking around town once I got here at around 3pm. Went and saw the cathedral, a cenote in the middle of town, and generally took in the sights. Tomorrow it is off to see Chichen Itza ... I know som of you have been looking forward to those photos. For now, Im having trouble uploading photos... Ill try again tomorrow. But yes, am fine and loving the heat and serious lack of snow!

Can't sleep

Way too excited and it's difficult to sleep! Woke up at 4:30am today, but somehow managed to get an extra hour, finally calling it quits on sleep at 5:30. Which is fine, I guess, since I will have to be up at 3:00am tomorrow to get to the airport. Feels surreal to know that in 24 short hours, I will be sitting on a plane, taxiing down the runway, heading towards the next great series of adventures as only I can do them!

Karl Pilkington, mate, you got nothing on this! :)

I am one short day away from leaving all of the snow and the cold and all of the other wintery shit that I detest with a passion behind. Hurry the fuck up Friday!

36 hours

Its so fun to think that tomorrow morning, when I take my first break of the working day, I will be just 24 hours away from standing in Cancun, waiting for my ADO bus to Valladolid!  Which means, the last minute crunch is on - and there's so much to do! At least, I think there is... now I have to take stock.

Actually, Im in fairly good shape here, all things considered. Aside from online checkin with my carrier, and booking a last minute bus, I'm pretty much ready. Gonna re-check my bags tonight and ensure my med kit is stocked. Maybe even test my camera under water, just to be sure it'll work while I still have access to lots of rice and time to dry it out should it go horribly wrong. LoL!

Well, if I have time to type, I've got time to continue getting ready... next entry: Valladolid on Friday!

Final Prep

Just four short days until departure for the land of the mayan sorcerers and a whole new batch of media to chronicle the neverending travels of this idiot abroad. In the final stages of trip prep - called my bank and credit card company yesterday to put travel notices on my accounts so they won't freeze them once they notice my cards being used in another country (good advice to use should you travel anywhere!). The last thing I'd want is to need cash and not be able to get it, or heaven forbid, have the machines eat my cards as stolen or something! Fuck, that would so suck!

Other than that, its all about optimizing my packs and being sure that I have everything I need and nothing I don't. I think I've gotten it down to the essentials to make the trip a success. It's pretty much down to those last minute things you forget about before going ... mostly household chore crap that you don't want to have to deal with when coming home. How prosaic is that? To be worried about getting the laundry and dishes done before take off? LoL!

Just a few more days and then its off to Chichen Itza and Ek Balam and of course, all the great food that only Mexico can provide!

Lightroom 3 and the merits of shooting in RAW

I've been using Adobe Lightroom 3 this week to do some post-processing on some of my shots from las years excursion to India and I have to tell you that I am really impressed with the results you can easily achieve with digital photo stock and this application. From something as simple as white balance correction to tone splitting, its a snap! Look below for before and after examples from Rishikesh, India and Central Park, NYC. The after shots really do look like how I remember it...

Left: Before corrections   - Right: After corrections

Left: Before corrections   - Right: After corrections

And if it can make a JPEG look that good straight from the camera, how good will shooting in RAW format be, I ask myself? And then that begs the question - should I be shooting in RAW for all of Mexico? If so, I may not have photo updates for you all...

One week to go!

This is the worst part of traveling, the waiting. Counting down the days definitely doesn't make departure day come any sooner that's for sure ~ in fact, I'm fairly certain it makes it take longer, relatively speaking. Getting very excited though and cannot wait to park my ass in the sun, on the beach, chilling out and not worrying about the myriad of things that typically weigh us down in our usual daily lives. Or maybe I'll swing in a hammock between two palms... or maybe... Hurry up next week! I wanna go!

Two weeks and counting...

Getting ever closer to single digits until departure day! I can almost hear the waves of the Caribbean washing ashore at Tulum, if I close my eyes - but then images of all of the great food I'm going to eat springs into mind. One thing I am very eager to tuck into is fresh sea urchin - mind you, it's only the roe, or eggs, that you eat, but still ... fresh from the sea, with that buttery, lobster-like flavour and texture? I'm sold - and I'm sure it won't be costly at all.

And thinking about sea urchins is making me imagine all of the great underwater shots I'll have from this trip. Kinda wish I had've done some in Goa last year, but didn't want to chance damaging the video camera, so far from home and with a long road ahead. This trip, oh hell yeah, its going underwater. The chance to film manta rays, moray eels, sea turtles, etc is just too awesome an opportunity to pass up!

Two more weeks until I can replace the hammock I left behind in Toronto all those years ago - two more weeks until I can tie it up to some palms and just chill the fuck out, swaying in the breeze. Life is good my friends, doubly so when you travel...

Soundtrack - Mexcio 2012

Last year, Toronto's Our Lady Peace ended up being the soundtrack of my sojourn through India. This year, I have settled on the debut album from Los Angeles' The Glitch Mob. It's got just the right blend of energy and melody and is tinged throughout with a subtle bittersweet sadness. It totally works for me right now and reflects my mood lately - which is to say, all over the map. Well worth the listen, if not the purchase. Check out their latest, We Can Make The World Stop.

That one is a little more energy and chaos - and it's so damned catchy! The whole album is quite good; I haven't hit a track yet that I didn't like. I haven't been this surprised with a release since Rammstein's last album, which is saying quite a bit.

21 days and counting!

Three short weeks to go until my cameras get dusted off and do their magic. I'm so happy that they invited me along again on this year's trip! Maybe I'll be nice and return the favour next time.

Been doing a lot of research on transportation - how to get from here to there sort of thing. Seems I may be investing in a few taxis, as colectivos and buses don't make either the routes or the stops I need. Ah well, there is always hitchhiking - and we all know me by now; if its an unnecessary risk, I'm likely to take it. Not sure who I get that from in the family?

What I do know is that I am eager for the beaches of Tulum, like seriously...

Started thinking today, that I may turn this blog into a website - something I want to continue pondering. It would make more sense, organizationally, to do so, and I could have separate sections for images, videos and text, broken down by trip... hmmm...