Tag Archives: photography

February 13, 2013 · 5:35 am

The Mayan Ruins of Altun Ha

Altun Ha

Turns out that Dzibanché weren’t the only Mayan ruins we would visit this trip. Reaching Belize City the next morning, we set out for the ruins of Altun Ha. Unfortunately, the rains of the previous day were not shaken off during the short jaunt down the coast of the Yucatán Penisula, and we had mostly light precipitation throughout our shore excursion this day.

Altun Ha

While the structures at Altun Ha are impressive, I thought the jungle setting at Dzibanché led to some better photographic opportunities. Also influencing that impression were the better weather conditions the preceding day and the fact that there were almost no competing crowds getting in the way of photographic composition at Dzibanché.

Altun Ha

Along the way we sighted some interesting artifacts, including this rather impressive termite nest and this sculptured face.

Termite colony

Altun Ha face

We also took note of a recently discovered Mayan calendar. This particular one would have come in handy last year, as it’s the previously unknown 2013 edition. All that panic for nothing.

Mayan Calendar — 2013 Edition

This next photograph depicts the famous Jester Head on the Sun God’s Tomb.

Jester Head

After our Mayan excursion our great tour guide Michael of Vitalino Reyes Cave Tubing, Michael then took us to lunch followed by our trek into the jungle for a cave tubing experience. If you get a chance to go on this cave tubing trip, by all means take it. And make sure you ask for Michael — friendly, informative, helpful, and just an all-round great guy. We spent much of the road portion of our trip exchanging recipes and cooking tips. Alas, because of the continual rain and the need to carry our floats, helmets, and life-jackets, I purposely left the camera back in the van rather than take the chance of saturating it.

You can view Ursula’s review of Vitalino Reyes Cave Tubing at this link on Trip Advisor.

On Friday we’ll take a break from the archeological with a visit to the Honduran island of Roatán — a great place, it turns out, to get your eMail account hacked!

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Filed under Photography, travel

Tagged as Altun Ha, Belize, cave tubing, cruising, Mayan ruins, NCL, Norwegian Star, photography, travel, Vitalo Reyes

February 8, 2013 · 5:35 am

Dzibanché — Part 3

While we went into the Yucatán Peninsula, we did so under fair, mostly blue skies and cotton balls of smaller cumulus. Farther in the skies grew increasingly overcast until, arriving in Dzibanché, there was little blue to be seen.

But in landscapes even colorless skies can serve a purpose. As they’re taken in monochromatic conditions, sometimes they make ideal candidates for monochromatic conversions to black and white.

Fortunately, the overcast abated somewhat and blue Caribbean sky made a nice backdrop to some of my later Dzibanché photographs.

As our time in this photographically exciting place was coming to an end, we had to get back into our van or risk waving “Bye-bye” to our shipmates as they set sail for Belize.

Too bad that weather didn’t hold. Shortly after leaving the Yucatán jungle behind, the clouds returned. By the time we reached the outskirts of Costa Maya the skies opened up and cast ran down upon us. The trek to the Norwegian Star left us both cool and damp, yet with spirits undampened.

Our next stop would bring us to another set of Mayan ruins, but in weather conditions not nearly as conducive to photography as those we had experienced this day.

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Filed under Photography, travel

Tagged as cruise, Dzibanché, Norwegian Star, photography, travel

February 6, 2013 · 5:35 am

Dzibanché — Part 2

It’s not often when I find people from El Paso singled out for anything. So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a sign indicating that people from El Paso are not welcome on some trails in Dzibanché. That was a rather cruel blow.

Just kidding. Actually, many of the structures at Dzibanché are surprisingly accessible. Indeed, one may climb atop some of these structures, and Ursula did that on at least one occasion with our tour guide Enrique.

I had other things to do. You’ll remember that we felt a bit pressed for time, as we had to be back aboard the Norwegian Star in time for sailing. So, I pulled out a piece of paper and started sketching away furiously in a race to complete the drawing in under twenty minutes. The rather rushed result was this:

A Quick Sketch

Actually, that picture is a photograph I took and converted using Picasa. The point being that Dzibanché is a great place for experimental photographic effects, including black and white conversions and more artistic effects.

On Monday I promised to post photographs of ancient Mayan architectural details such as carved stones and painted stucco (note the reds). Click on any of the following images for an enlarged look: