Campeche and Quintana Roo Archaeology Extravaganza! (pt. 1Edzna and Becan)

I am currently writing this post in my hotel room in Xpujil Campeche. I am not sure when I will have the chance to get online (hopefully as soon as tomorrow) and there is quite a bit to post… so I figured I would get a head start and upload everything as soon as I get the chance. There are quite a bit of photos to post since I have been visiting quite a few places… and I am of course (as always) quite shutter-happy. The trip I am doing is of southern Mexican states of Campeche and Quintana Roo. I am quite happy because this is my first time visiting most of these archaeological sites, due to the fact that they are quite remote and not really close to anything else at all (except Tulum and Edzna). Anyway for the first post I will cover Edzna and Becan. Edzna is located about 80km away from the state capital of Campeche (also called Campeche). It’s not a huge site but possesses some really interesting buildings such as the acropolis, the ball court, a temple with some really nice stucco masks… and a massive five floor temple. I was also able to nab some nice photos of birds in Edzna, so hooray for me! Becan (also in the state of Campeche) is very interesting but does not preserve very much in the way of hieroglyphics (unlike Edzna)… however Becan does posses a fairly impressive network of corridors and large pyramids. That being said, the most interesting feature of the sight is perhaps the wonderfully preserved stucco mask which adorns a ceremonial platform… seeing something like this, and imagining it painted and gleaming begins to give one the idea of the splendour which these monuments once possessed. The area of the acropolis is not very large, but fairly impressive since it is surrounded by such large structures. I found the circular platforms fairly interesting, since its not something you see all that much of in the Maya world.

Celesun & Cuzama

I have not been very good at keeping my promise to myself to update this blog every week… but oh well, an entry every two weeks is not that bad, right? right? Anyway here are some pictures I took during the past couple of weeks. The photos are from the cenotes in Cuzama and from a national park in the northern part of Yucatan called Celestun. The cenote photos did not turn out quite as well as I hoped… but then again I was just using a crappy little Olympus point-and-shoot… next time ill take my canon and a tripod or something. The photos from Celestun on the other hand worked out really well… which surprised me since the light was really flat and I was having lots of problems getting all those birds in to focus… but oh well. Anyway here are the pics.

Tomando Agua de Pozo

Tomorrow my Mom will be presenting her book “Tomando Agua de Pozo” which is as she calls it “A guide for the Neophyte Yucatecan”. Anyway I don’t usually endorse anything on my blog… but of course I will make an exception for this. The book is selling at 200 pesos (roughly 20 dollars) with 50 pesos going towards the IWC’s charities in Merida. Good going mom, we are all very proud!

Here is a article about the book (Spanish)

Happy Belated 2008

Well it has been a few weeks since I last posted. Things have been really busy with the moving back to Merida, Christmas and everything… but all and all everything has gone quite smoothly. I am very happy to be back in Merida, Vancouver is a nice place but is definitely NOT for me. I am moved in to my little house in the north of the city and I am really loving being a home owner… its such a different feeling from just renting. Christmas was nice and really relaxed this year… and new years was completely uneventful. It was the first Christmas in a few year that I was with my entire family, so that was cool. Also my friend Roque visited from Guadalajara so it was good to see him to… we spent a few days running around some lesser known Mayan archaeological sites, so that was really fun and cool. Anyway here are a bunch of pictures I have taken in the last couple of weeks. Thanks for reading, and happy belated New Year!


Old windmill in Ake

Remains of a Mayan Pyramid in Ake

Remains of another Pyramid in Ake

The kind of road you sometimes have to suffer to get to some very remote sites

My counsin Cydney and I in Vancouver

My family and I

Colonial convent in Izamal

Kinch Kak Moo Pyramid in Itzamal... what you can see in the picture is the top section of it which is built on top of a larger pyramid that suports and artificial platform... this thing is masive

Izamal is called the "yellow city" for obvious reasons

Last week in photos

Well I was hoping to be able to get out there and take more pictures with my balloon cam contraption, however different circumstances and the weather have kept me from going so… and it now looks like the next flight will most likely take place in Merida.

I have however had the chance to run around town and the bush somewhat this week… so I figured I may as well share some of those photos. As you can see the subject matter varies quite a fair amount… yay for kittens and blurry photos of forests that kind of look like oil paintings (by the way that’s the way it came out, no photoshop other than cropping).

Success! Well moderate success… but success none the less

Well this morning I went out, got another couple balloons, filled them up with helium, attached them to my rig and went out for a test flight. I ended up using 3 three foot balloons at 3/4^th capacity for my lift. The lift generated by these 3 balloons was sufficient but a fourth one would have really made the whole thing soar a lot more easily, although it managed to work fairly well on 3. I did my first test next to a river near a trail. The second shoot was done at a park next to a primary school… I managed to get some shots but I was asked to leave since the kids were going to be coming of for PE (and we all know how paranoid everyone is these days). I am not sure who was more disappointed, me or the kids… yay!!! everyone loves big balloons! Anyway I was hoping to get back out after 4pm when everyone would be gone, but hubris struck poor Daedalus’s Eye down… one of my balloons popped when I was trying to get it back in to the house. Anyway although the photos are not to exciting, the project worked beautifully and proved the principle that this can be done fairly easily with the setup I have designed. I am happy with the results and am looking forward to my next attempt, maybe with an actual weather balloon instead of just 3 over sized party ones. Also I will be a bit more adventurous and let it get a little more height next time… oh well we will see. Thanks for reading!

And here is a little movie... enjoy

Daedalus’s Eye

So for a while I have been thinking a lot about aerial photography. There are a few different ways to go about this… RC airplanes, kites, blimps etc (or if you have the money, rent an actual aircraft or hot air balloon). After much consideration and toying with some pretty funky ideas, I finally decided that the most practical solution would be to simply attach a compact digital camera to a helium balloon. Since I do not have a remote control camera, the challenge was to adapt a RC servo motor to press down on the shutter, thus taking the picture remotely. After several modifications I have gotten this to work fairly reliably. I have ordered a weather balloon and am waiting for it to arrive in the mail. However today I was able to pick up a 3 foot diameter balloon (8 bucks) at a store and according to my very fuzzy mathematic calculations… this should be enough (although I am not 100% confident since the temperature has an effect on how many metric meters of helium are needed). Anyway I will be attempting my first aerial shoot tomorrow… providing that the weather allows it. I am crossing my fingers that the balloon will not pop and that my chord won’t break… *sigh* there are so many things that could go horribly wrong…so I guess all I can do is hope for the best. The whole thing weighs about 500g and cost about 80 bucks to put together (not including the camera). Anyway here are some photos of the set up… if you have any suggestions, do not agree with my math, or have experience with anything resembling this, please drop me a line. I will post the results of the first test as soon as I can.

I sure hope the “Daedalus’s Eye” does not suffer the same fate as its namesake.

So today I went with my cousin Stephanie, her husband Ben and their little pug “Pedro” to do some hiking in the mountains of North Vancouver, so yes… more hiking pictures, I know there has been much of this lately on the blog, but I promise to get some other stuff up here soon to spice it up a bit. Anyway it was a really nice day and I managed to get a few decent pictures, here are a few of them. Is it just me, or does this forrest have a lord of the rings feel to it? With the anthropomorphic trees and everything... mmm mushrooms.