Hurrican Dean Aftermath

After the cool old guy asked me to dinner along with my colleges, I told him that I have had a hell of a time in Mexico, so far I have been pick pocketed at Coco Bongo by a guy I was dancing with. He then shows up at the hotel Gran Melia at the front entrance the next evening, while I am going in to the hotel for the pre-satellite conference dinner. He says he has a room and wanted to give me a key. That turd had probably bought it with my own damn stolen cash of $300 and then wanted to take me to bed. I told him "Kiss My Grits" and strutted right the hell out that crazy situation. I knew there was no way to prove that he stole it, so calling the police would been a waste of effort. Believe me you just can't make this up, life is better than fiction in my world. Then I said it would be nice to be treated to a decent meal by a decent guy, and listen to more of his stories of his life. I love to listen to my elders and find out what type life they have lived with real history, other than the messed up tv and history books written by the current victors. He suggested a Chiles restaurant across from the hotel and told him I would meet him later. I couldn't miss this beautiful opportunity to shoot. It was a surreal photographers dream with the atmosphere so clear and deep blue, being cleaned up by the Hurricane. It truly was a perfect backdrop for all of the beautiful flowers and colorful architecture.

There were so many wonderful full colors like have not seen in many years, with no haze and pollution to distort the light by refraction and the beautiful strong colors of Mexican culture. It was one of my best shooting days yet. I took over 200 photos and can only post a few.

The Mayan Archaeology Museum was a surreal blending of Mayan and Spanish architechture. The blending of cultures is seen in the crowns above the windows. They seem to symbolise the jaguar and the symbol of a rabbits head, lion body, snake tail facing each other. The flame symbol is in the window crowns between the two. They remind me being at the momento a la Patria, during the Hurricane. It was one of the best archaeological buildings I have ever seen, but I dont get out of the United States very much and get to see all of the really cool architechture of the world.

I then walk to a side street one block from the 21st century plaza avenue to the real Mexico. Their buldings were alive with color, texture, and wraught iron.

This was the doorway to Where? What type of life laid behind that door? Did they have different concerns than us? They do seem to have a lot more music than our culture. I was even able to sing for our cab ride through the city of Merida. The driver had no music on and we were driving back from the downtown festival. We had not seen Merida yet and had some free time, so he started driving us to different landmarks in town. I asked him if he could play any latin beat music with some type of salsa in it. He said do you sing? I said yes and he but in a CD that we could sing to. It was really cool to let my emotions sing and let out all of the heartache and pain I was feeling. The driver was a pretty good tenor who sang for a mariachi band, go figure! We must have sang for hours, it was like being home and singing with my neighoors on a Sunday. We when got out of the cab and the bill was like 500 pesos, he said no he wouldn't take a peso from me, that I sang for the fare. That was alot of fun and release.