Quintana Roo adventure with the boys pt. 1 (Bacalar)

Yesterday I got back from spending five days at Bacalar with my good friends Tonatiuh and Raul (AKA Soples). We stayed at a really nice place on the lagoon owned by Raul's family and boy... is it ever nice. It was really cool to get some time to hang out with my buds, enjoy the lagoon and the wildlife in the area. There was lots of beer drinking and playing domino under the palapa... so yeah, I would say it was a very successful trip! As you can probably tell by the aerial shots I also brought the drone along, which was tons of fun also. We also did a few day trips but I will post those photos in another post. Enjoy the photos!

A month of highs and lows

Its been quite the month as we have had a bunch of friends and family drop by to visit here in Yucatan. My friend Zane from college days in the Miramichi, my former University roommate from UNB and his lovely wife Rita, Michael/Jessica/Hunter from Montreal, My aunty Cathy and her family as well as my oldest friend Roque who now lives in California. Needless to say its been very busy and also very fun. That being said, this month we also lost my aunt Lupita to cancer. It was extremely sad and its hard to imagine a world without her. She was a remarkable woman and she is sorely missed. The photos this time around are a bit of a mish mosh of images from convents in Valladolid, areal images of the coastline, archeaeological sites and churches.

Maya Ball-courts (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras)

What is often referred to as the Mesoamerican "ball game" is an ancient ceremony practiced by a variety of Prehispanic peoples across Mesoamerica and to this very day in parts of the Mexican state of Sinaloa (though in a modernized form). As you have likely heard, this "game" or ceremony had elements of ritualistic sacrifice, although the exact nature and circumstance of these sacrifices remains a matter of scholarly debate (with some arguing that the losers of the match were sacrificed, while other claim that this "honor" went to the victors). That being said it is important to keep in mind that many different forms or versions of this ritual where played out throughout Mesoamerica. It is also important to mention that although most ball-courts share similar elements, there is no dimensional uniformity to be found. Even the stone hoop through which the ball was to pass is not entirely universal as is demonstrated by the main ball-court of the great Maya city state of Copan which instead features Macaw heads as markers. While not all Maya cities featured ball-courts, most large ceremonial centers did (with large cities like Chichen Itza having more than ten).

Follow the link to a collection of photographs of ball-courts from across the Maya regions of Mexico and Central America. http://imgur.com/a/j1gyw#0

* I posted the images on imgur instead of directly here on blogger since some of the photographs are very high resolution and the blogger up loader was being fussy.

Chichen Itza and Ik Kil

About a month ago I made my way out to Chicen Itza with some friends visiting from Austria. I honestly have no idea how many times I have been to the site... but I would venture to say at least 50 easy. Still, despite the vendors and other annoyances the splendor of the site always shines through for me. Its easy to be a bit cynical about Chichen Itza... but then again, it truly is a magnificent place. In any case, once we finished up in Chichen Itza we made our way to the Ik Kil cenote. I had been to Ik Kil about 15 years ago, so when I arrived and saw the way it had been transformed in to a resort style park... I was shocked. Back when I had visited in the late 90s there was only a small hut and a few mestizas selling cochinita cooked on outdoor stone stoves... now you have several different restaurants, changing rooms, hotel rooms. Quite a change. In any case, what I was really interested in were the archaeological remains on the grounds of the complex. About four different structures are visable without venturing out to far. Though the archaeological remains are of course modest when compared to nearby Chichen Itza, they are interesting none the less. Hope you enjoy the photos!

Beach time in Chelem!

This weekend the family made it out to visit my great aunt Alice (from British Columbia), her daughter, husband and grandson for a big birthday celebration. We all had a great time, lots of amazing food and a drink or two! As always, I brought my camera gear and capitalized on the opportunity to take a bunch of photos. As you can see bellow I also brought my aerial camera along and took some nice shots of the coast along the Yucatecan seaside in Chelem. We also made a little trip to the mangroves on the laguna just opposite Progreso. This provided for the opportunity to photograph the wildlife, mangrove themselves and some neat clear watter springs which are really quite nice for swimming. Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos!

Eye in the Sky Mexico

Last week I finally got my hands on my Phantom UAV! I have for many years thought about how cool it would be to do areal photography and its only quite recently that this kind of technology has really been available outside of the military. I have already made several flights and here are a few examples of the images I have captured so far here in Merida. I am also offering up my services to take photographs/HD video of  real-estate, industrial plants, farms or what ever really. If you or anyone you know is interested in this kind of thing, shoot me an email at carlos.rosado@gmail.com . I have also set up a facebook page, so check it out! https://www.facebook.com/eyeintheskymexico

First birding outing of 2014

Back in January my good friend Cherie Pitillo invited me to join a group of photographers from across the peninsula for a morning of birding in Merida´s wonderful parks. It was really nice to get out there and shot some nice photos though I was using a camera I was not terribly familiar with and did not get quite as many nice shots as I would have hoped. Still, it was a really good time and I look forward to do some more wildlife photography soon. Thanks Cherie!

Ok, this is getting silly

It would be quite an understatement to say that things have been hectic around here. With the move, an infant and work there has not been to much time for photography (other than of the baby of-course). That being said I have been working on a couple cool projects which I am close to being ready to put out there... so that's exciting. Starting next week I will get back to posting regularly so I hope you all stick around.

 

Oh, also I took this shot yesterday at Playa del Carmen during a business trip, quite happy with it =)