Wedding: Valentines Day

A Valentines day wedding...Aliza and Paul. I was actually the assistant for this wedding, and Corey Fitzgerald was the lead photographer. What does this mean? For one, it means I got to photograph the guys, which doesn't happen often (the lead photographer is with the bride). Two, I got to do many of the detail shots and candids. When I first got to the house, Paul and his groomsmen were playing poker, which was fun to watch. It always amazes me how much more relaxed the men are...

Trip is over

The trip is over. I have been home for 4 days now and am so grateful for it. For many reasons, I had an awful time on this trip. I have never felt so alone and so out of control as on this trip, and it scared the hell out of me. India was jarring, too, but in a totally different way. However, the color holga negs I have so far (still need to process the BW ones...) are really making me happy. A few favorites are posted here, but the whole set is in my pbase gallery to check out. As usual, I am drawn to inanimate objects for the most part...textures, colors, shadows, and light. Building materials always fascinate me- the signs of erosion, decay, and time that usually present in layers. I have never been really good at personal contact, people pictures, even with my friends at home. (The wedding photography is a whole 'nother thing...I thrive on photographing people at weddings.) I was going to try, but once I realized where my head was at on this trip, I stuck to the houses, walls, and fences that I knew best. It is safer (and it is much more comforting to me when I am stressed) to be alone and stand there studying peeling paint for chunks of time.

Central America: Antigua

Back to Antigua today, 4 hour bus ride thru the mountains again. I picked up a new book today, I will need it for tomorrow and maybe it will even last through my flights and layover. We have our LAST day here tomorrow, I have no set plans, so I will probably spend the whole day reading. I can't wait to come home on Monday. Not much for photos today, there's a couple of shots from Antigua, and then a shot of a dog that looks eeerily like Shayna, Dr Easleys dog. It could be her ghost! I was organizing my exposed film, too, earlier. For having brought 100 rolls, I have only shot maybe 25 or 30. And of that, only one or two in BW. So much for saving myself money with film processing, huh? Glad I left the BW chemistry at home...now I have all of those unexposed rolls to bring back home with me. Which makes me think...something strange has happened to the contents of my suitcase. You know how when you go away, things sort of accummulate, and you need to buy another bag to even it all out? And then get charged for a checked bag, etc, at the airport... Well, I am actually finding that I have MORE room in my suitcase the longer this trip goes on. Odd, because I have been buying clothes as I need them (in thrift shops of course) and I know I have tossed a couple of things, but not enough to explain the empty suitcase. Oh well. Makes my trip back lighter, I guess.

Central America: Fire

Last night there was a fire next to our hotel. An entire restaurant burned down. Interesting that this should happen, because JUST last night I was in a position where I actually thought about how to get out of my hotel room if there was a fire. You see, they have a different system down here for doors. On our hotel room door, there is just a deadbolt, operated by a key on both sides...no way to hand turn the lock like we have at home. It is either engaged, or it is not. Claudia and I are sharing the room, and I told her she could keep the key. Now, what this means is that if we leave the door unlocked for convenience, there is nothing to keep it from swinging open. And, of course, the way the door is hung it does open up wide. So she is in the habit of locking it when she leaves...even if I am in the room (this happened in another hotel, too). I am effectively locked IN to the room until she returns. I cannot get out except by breaking the window. Not a great option, but hey, at least there is a window. At any rate, she went out last night with everyone else, and I stayed in reading and then headed to be around 10. Locked in. At about 2am, there was a fire right around the corner from our hotel. I slept thru it, I am ashamed to say, but all of the others were actually down there helping to put it out, since they had been up partying on the hotel roof and saw it when it got going. They helped bring buckets filled from local house taps. There were two fireman but they didn't have long enough hoses to reach the place, and besides, it was fed from a regular tap anyway. At any rate, I find it odd that in the place that I actually moved the curtains to look at options and had FIRE on my mind, there WAS a fire. The photos below were taken first thing this morning, as the spot was being cleaned up.

Central America: Antigua and Panajachel

After 8 hours in the bus, we arrived in Antigua last night...just in time for dinner, then to bed, then off to Panajachel, which is where the photo above was taken. Lots of travelling, and on some amazing roads. Skinny roads thru the highlands, carved out of the hillside. No place to go if you break down, and tons of hairpin turns that make you dizzy. Several trucks and busses DID break down, though, which meant that the traffic was backed up several times around all of those turns. In fact, on one of the wider roads, an 18 wheeler had been going too fast and flipped over...effectively blocking 3/4 of the road. That backup put us more than an hour behind schedule. It was really something. Add to that the smell and smoke of garbage or brush burning (looking out onto any vista, you can see between 4 and 10 fires burning at any given time) and the thick, black exhaust from all of the busses and trucks. By the end of the ride today I was nauseous from all of the fumes...Ok, it's blurry because I shot from the bus window but what I am trying to document is the way that they use all of the land here. Even areas that you think are too steep (and it's all steep), they have figured out a way to access it and plant...something. Corn, cabbage, watermelons, you name it. They grow it. This photo doesn't even show the really steep areas.

A market that we stopped at for a few hours today. Busy place. Lots of beautiful things, textiles mostly. I am reminded on a daily basis of the lessons learned in India, and I am not buying anything that takes up space. NOTHING. Nada. Not this time. I did, however, find a nice silver ring for myself today. I have been keeping my eye out for something like that, I finally found one that met my specifications. I'm kinda picky with things like that.

Steps to a church in the middle of that market.
Chicks for sale. Anyone need a nice chicken?
The colorful area on the far hillside is a cemetery.

There are not as many skinny dogs here as there were in India, but the dogs still aren't exactly pets. They scrounge around the streets looking for garbage to eat, and then when they sleep they are out cold, anywhere. I have seen dogs sleeping in the road. This one was at least within the market, no cars allowed.
This was a quick shot last night in Antigua. The place is gorgeous...a beautifully laid out Spanish city. It was the capitol until it got levelled by one too many earthquakes. We are going back to Antigua in a couple of days, I will get more of a chance to look around then. I am afraid I might buy something there, though. They have such nice things. Really nice.
And one last shot...the place I picked for breakfast today had a resident cat! As I sat there petting the happy little thing, it was the first time the whole trip I have smiled so much. Nothing like a furry creature to make me happy. :)

Central America: Rio Dulce

Rio Dulce is in the middle of the map, a skinny spot between lakes. Town is on one side of the water, our huts are on the other. I took a boat over to the town to use internet.

The hut I am staying in, beds complete with mosquito netting because it is in a swamp. The whole place is connected by a network of elevated walkways, and they are slippery. There are no handrails. Go slow. This is the first spot I have been really glad I did bring bug stuff.

We all went to a nearby hot spring yesterday after arriving in Rio Dulce. Well, I say nearby but it was actually an hour fast boat ride to another spot, then a tractor ride (all of us piled in the back cart like hay bales), then a walk thru the jungle to the hot spring. Great place. Amazingly hot water coming down...those falls are the hot water, then it lands in the pool and mixes. Depending on which pool you are in it is hotter or cooler as it gets further away from the falls. very clean water. The little fish bite you if you stay still for more than a half minute.

A blurry shot, but this boy was our tractor driver.

Central America: Tikal

Tikal is one of the largest ruin sites, certainly very impressive. Some areas still have scaffolding, some temples are being "put back together" even now. I don't feel like writing much about Tikal, but it was a beautiful spot, not too crowded (as I had been worried about) and made for a nice 4 hour walk thru the jungle. I even got some reading done up on top of one of the temples. Going up those very steep stairs was a workout, 2 days later I can feel my legs. Good to know I am burning some calories on this trip with all of the rice, tortilla chips, beans and cheese I am eating..