Mérida

After one night in Cancun, we took a bus to Mérida were Mike was living and the gluttony started with a trip to the local ridiculously cheap taco shop.

Longaniza (spicy sausage) tacos

Mérida is the capital city of Yucatán and was founded in the 1540s by Spanish conquistadors on the site of the Maya city of T'hó. Buildings such as the cathedral were built from stones from the ancient city. Essentially, Maya slaves were made to tear down their place of worship to build a new one for their conquerors. Beautiful city though. Oh, and free wi-fi!

Clock tower of the Palacio Municipal

No shortage of habaneros in the market

Orangina the Chihuahua.

Uxmal

Uxmal was the first lot of Maya ruins we visited and probably my favourite of the structures are just as impressive as Chichen Itza, but without the crowds. Though a lot of the buildings have been restored since the first excavations in 1929, much has yet to be discovered.

The Pyramid of the Magician / Dwarf

The main pyramid was, if you believe the legend, built by a powerful dwarf magician who was hatched from an egg.

The King became enraged that he was being matched by a dwarf, and told the dwarf that in one night he must build a house higher than any other in the city or he would be killed. The dwarf again returned crying to his mother who told him to not lose hope, and that he should go straight to bed. The next morning the city awoke to see the Pyramid of the Dwarf in its finished state, taller than any other building in the city.

Ballcourt

Poc-chuc, a Yucatán delicacy of pork marinated in sour orange juice.

Ancient hand paintings at Lol-tun, a cave with signs of habitation dating back over 10,000 years, which was used as a refuge by Maya during the caste war against the Spanish.

Cenotes

The Yucatán peninsular is mainly composed of porous limestone. Because of this, there are almost no rivers in the northern half with rain water filtering underground to create subterranean rivers and caves. When the limestone bedrock collapses and exposes groundwater it creates a "cenote". Cenotes are particularly associated with the Yucatán and Maya cities were built around them as they were the only source of drinking water.

66 million years ago an asteroid hit the earth just off the present day coast of the peninsular. The impact crater, although now covered, affected the flow of groundwater meaning that there is a higher concentration of cenotes around the outer rim of the crater. This impact is also thought to have killed the dinosaurs along with 75% of the plant and animal life on earth.

Map showing concentration of cenotes (blue dots) around the crater rim.

Mike took us to the cenotes at Cuzamá. There used to be three accessible cenotes on the tour, but due to an ongoing dispute between two neighbouring towns about who has the right to run this popular tourist spot, only two are currently open. You get to the cenotes on horse-drawn trucks, which have been converted from those that were used to transport henequen.

Mike and Verónica

Transportation to the cenotes. As you can see, there is only one track and the carts have to be lifted off the tracks to allow others to pass

One of the cenotes at Cuzamá

A Hacienda.

By the turn of the 19th century Merida boasted more millionaires per capita than anywhere on earth. These wealthy entrepreneurs were hacienda (land estate) owners who made their riches from henequen, a plant whose fibres can be used to make rope. The Mexican revolution and synthetic fibre soon put an end to mass production of this green gold and the haciendas were largely abandoned and fell into disrepair. Some of them have now been renovated and turned into museums and five-star hotels. We thought about staying in one, but they required guests to be "calm and elegant", so that ruled us out

Cenote at Dzibilchaltún

Valladolid

Valladolid was recently awared the title Pueblo Mágico "magical village", which I think is just a tourism board initiative and doesn't actually reveal anything about the competency of local wizards. It's a nice little town though and provides a good base from which to explore the ruins of Ek Ballam and Chichen Itza.

Ek Ballam

For understandable reasons, climbing a lot of the remaining Maya pyramids isn't allowed. Ek Ballam is one of the few that has one you can still climb.

Although the city was rediscovered in the late 1800s, it wasn't excavated until 1997.

Chichen Itza

Once the centre of the Maya empire, Chichen Itza was recently named one of the new seven wonders of the world. Many of the buildings in the complex show the influence that astronomy had on Maya culture. The main pyramid, for example, has 365 steps: the four sides have 91 each, with the top platform forming the 365th. Twice a year at the Spring and Autumn equinoxes a shadow in the shape of a serpant falls on the pyramid, slowly slithering down the steps to join a stone snake head at the base.

The city was mysteriously abandoned in the 1400s, long before the Spanish set foot on the peninsular.

Tulum

Tulum was one of the last cities built by the Mayas and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish occupation of Mexico. The city"s demise is less mysterious than Chichen Itza; the inhabitants likely succumbed to diseases brought by Spanish settlers.

The ruins aren't the only attraction, with many visitors coming for the nearby cenotes and beach-side hotels.

Cenote Escondido

Funny story about the picture above (kind of... in hindsight...). We were only in Tulum for a couple of days, so although the weather forecast wasn't good we decided to hop in a taxi and go to Cenote Escondido. We arrived to find the gate locked, but the taxi driver said that the was a hole in the fence and if we walked to the end of the dirt track there might be some other people there.

We weren't utterly convinced, but arranged for him to pick us up in an hour and made our way down the track. After a bit of a walk, we arrived at the Cenote to find it deserted. The water was beautiful, but soon after we arrived we heard the sound of thunder in the distance. While contemplating whether to get in or not, the heavens opened and we had to seek shelter in a tiny staw hut with no walls. The thunder and lightning came closer until it was almost overhead, while we huddled together shivering in wet swimming costumes and towels and batting off mosquitoes. I started to wonder whether this tiny hut would really offer any protection in the event of a lightning strike, or whether it was a death trap and we would be better off legging it up the path and back to the road as soon as possible. We still had about 45 minutes until the taxi driver came to pick us up — assuming he was coming back — so we decided to wait it out.

It got down to about 10 minutes before the scheduled pick up time and the thunder seemed to be moving away, so we decided to make a move. Of course, by this time the dirt path had turned into a stream and the cheap sandals we had on made for a pretty uncomfortable journey back. I tried my best to motivate my wife, which I think she appreciated, but it was hard to tell with all the swearing and death threats. Eventually we made it to the end of the path and I climbed through the fence to find our taxi driver waiting for us. He probably thought our huge smiles were from having such fun at the cenote — "oh that's, nice you had the place to yourself", he said — and not from having survived a (perceived) near death experience. Anyway, it was pretty romantic, in a way.

I tend to rely on sites like Trip Advisor for restaurant recommendations when traveling. We quickly realised that in Tulum though, the internet recommendations where all far too touristy and the best fayre on offer was local street food. We got some tacos from this place and they were so good we immediately went back for more — much to the amusement of the staff.

Puerto Morelos

No honeymoon in the Yucatán peninsular would be complete without a stay at one of the many all-inclusive hotels. My preconception of all-inclusives was one of quantity over quality, but the one we stayed at was great. Unfortunately we are both total lightweights, so couldn't really get value for money — the big bottles of liquor in our mini-bar stayed completely unopened and after a couple of frozen marqueritas we had to have a lie-down.

Cancun

Cancun is mainly associated with Spring Break culture and most tourists don't step foot outside the hotel area. However, the real heart of the city is Parque de las Palapas. The park is an important meeting place for local residents and shows are often held on the main stage. We were mainly interested in the open air food court of course. The final night of our trip coincided with Cinco de Mayo, making the park even more bustling than usual.

Esquites is a mixture of corn, mayo, chilli powder and lime. Before eating: "Er, what is that?" After eating: "WHAT IS THIS AND WHERE HAS IT BEEN ALL MY LIFE?"

Open air food court at Parque de las Palapas

Although recent tax rises in France and price-competition in the UK have made the trip less worthwhile for some, those from the south of England can usually save at least enough to pay for the journey and lunch too.

The white cliffs of Dover on the way to France.

Côte d'Opale.

The monument at Escalles to The Dover Patrol.

L'Escale where we stopped for lunch.

Booze in a French hypermarket.

Heading back to England.

Anyway, Last Sunday I made it out to Tanzan Jinja, a shinto shrine that piqued my interest after I saw pictures of its unusual 13-story pagoda. It's a nice shrine and hopefully I can go back in Spring to check out the hiking trails behind it.

The small town of Kelso started off as a depot for the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad, and boomed briefly when iron and borax mines opened nearby in the 1940s. The mines closed a decade later and the steady decrease in freight and passenger traffic led to the closure of the depot in 1986. Kelso is now a ghost town.

In the 1970s Kelso became known as the town without television. About 75 residents lived in Kelso at that time, many with school age children. Because Television signals couldn't reach the remote town, residents had to find other methods of recreation. Adults sat outside and talked while children played outside until dark. Unfortunately the advent of satellite TV eventually brought TV to Kelso.

Abandoned buildings in Kelso

Kelso Depot

The main point of interest in Kelso is the Kelso depot. Built in 1923 in the Mission revival style, it has now been restored and serves as the Mojave National Preserve Visitors Center and restaurant.

Kelso Depot

Kelso Dunes

These dunes are notable for the singing sand or "booming dunes" phenomenon, where a shifting top layer of sand produces a low-frequency rumble that be both heard and felt. Visitors can climb to the top of the dunes and slide down to experience it. We didn't have time to do that, but here's a video that explains how it works.

The dunes are also home to a number of endemic insect species. My girlfriend is entomophobic, so it's lucky we didn't run into any of them!

Kelso dunes

Harmony Motel

The Harmony Motel, located in Twenty-nine palms on the edge of the Joshua Tree national park, gained some fame when U2 stopped here to shoot promotional pictures for an album they were working on. The picture of the band in front of the motel sign is still used in their live performances. The films Crazy Beautiful and Route 666 also had scenes shot here.

While staying here was a completely different experience to the luxury hotels of Vegas, I think I'd take star-filled skies over neon billboards everytime.

The famous Harmony Hotel sign at sunset.

With all the light pollution in Japan, one thing I really wanted to try in America was astro-photography. Along with an SLR and a tripod, this discipline also generally calls for a car and a lot of patience. As I didn't have either of those I made do with this shot of the desert sculpture behind the motel.

Posting three photos of a motel sign might be a bit much, but I thought it was pretty cool.

Joshua Tree National Park

This park, which was declared a U.S. National Park in 1994, straddles the Colorado and Mojave deserts (pronounced "mo-hah-vee"). The Mojave area is higher and home to the eponymous Joshua trees.

When you see the Joshua tree, you're in the Mojave desert.

The name is actually a misnomer - it isn't really a tree, but a species of yucca. A hardy dessert plant, they grow at a leisurely pace of about 3cm a year with the tallest specimens reaching around 15 metres in height. Some Joshua trees are thought to live as long as a thousand years, but because they lack growth rings it's difficult to tell.

Skull Rock - can you see the skull?

According to Mormon legend, early settlers named the plant after the Old Testament prophet Joshua, as the tree's stretching branches reminded them of Joshua holding out his spear.

‘And the LORD said unto Joshua, stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city.â€
Joshua 8:18

U2's Bono, upon learning about the plant and the religious significance of its etymology from photographer Anton Corbijn, decided that the album they were working on would be titled "The Joshua Tree".

Joshua trees really are peculiar looking plants, with their twisted alien forms and furry looking trunks. They are usually found in groups and coupled with the barren desert landscape can create an otherworldly scene.

Antelope ground squirrel, able to resist Hyperthermia and survive body temperatures over 40°C.

Gambling is risk-taking. It might be said the owner of a casino gambles, takes risks, but he has the odds in his favour, so that's intelligent gambling. If I wanted to gamble, I'd buy the casino. -Jean Paul Getty, Sr. (1892–1976), American oil tycoon.

In the absence of any real gambling we spent most of our time walking up and down the strip. With all the massive casinos you get the impression that the strip is very short. It's not -- the thing is almost 5 miles long. According to my girlfriends pedometre we walked about 15 miles without even trying.

Paris

Sphinx in front of the Luxor Hotel

Luxor's 30-storey pyramid is encased in 11 acres of dark bronze glass.The tip of the pyramid contains a fixed-position spotlight that points directly upward and is claimed to be the brightest light beam in the world at over 42.3 billion candle power. Apparently it is clearly visible from outer space.

New York, New York.

Casino floor at New York, New York.

Paris slot machine.

Paris casino floor.

Planet Hollywood, Grand Chateau and MGM Grand.

A word of warning to any photographers going to Las Vegas from Arizona: make sure you change your clocks when you cross the border. I had planned to watch the sunset from the top of the Stratosphere, but by the time I had realised my mistake, the sun was almost down already. I took the photo above from the elevator lobby of my hotel (Paris), before rushing to get up the Eiffel tower before twilight finished.

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower is great. There's no space for tripods, but if you have a gorilla pod you can use it to hold an slr between the slot-shaped openings in the fence. Wish I'd got up there a bit earlier though.

The strip, looking south: Planet Hollywood, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, Mandarin Oriental and Cosmopolitan.

The strip, looking north: Caesar's Palace, The Mirage, Treasure Island and Flamingo

The Fountains of Bellagio

Big win

Route 180 from Flagstaff is often closed due to snow in winter, so we were lucky it was clear. We were also treated to this sunset along the way:

The next day we headed to Mather Point where we came across this rather fat squirrel (at least I think that's what it was):

Despite numerous signs telling visitors not to feed the wildlife, this little guy seemed to be doing pretty well for itself. When my girlfriend went to grab her camera she inadvertently rustled a plastic bag causing the squirrel to rush down from its rock and stand on its two back legs with front legs outstretched. That little show probably earns it more than its fair share of twinkies.

Anyway, after that distraction we actually had a look at the canyon. It certainly lives up to its name:

Mather Point

Yavapai Point

Hermit's Rest trail

After that everyone decided to head back to the hotel. With only 30 minutes until sunset it did seem like a bit of a waste (diplomatic way of putting it), but it was very cold and windy so I could kind of understand.

The next day we awoke to find the place covered in a blanket of snow. If it had been like that the day before, we may never have arrived. Luckily the roads weren't too bad so we were able to move on to Las Vegas.

New car (this one wasn't involved in any accidents, fortunately)

Concert photography certainly isn't an easy gig (excuse the pun). The constantly changing lighting calls for fully manual settings, but if it was easy it wouldn't be any fun right?

Umbre

After missing the first band, the second band on was Umbre.

Plaid Tone

Next up was my friend's band: Plaid Tone. David on drums, Yoshi on guitar, Dai on bass and Toshi on vocals.

THE ROYAL CHAINS

Headlining the gig was the Royal Chains, who spanned genres from Punk to Death Metal. Pretty interesting!

Unfortunately, as Mark Hamel says in this blog post about travel photography, family holidays and serious photography don't mix:

Capturing a compelling image often involves doing activities that are either boring, dangerous, or embarrassing to anyone else not taking the photo.
. . .
The schedule for a family vacation is just different than doing serious shooting. Sunset, a prime-time to shoot is most often taken up by checking into the hotel or eating dinner. -Mark Hamel.

Still, I'm pretty happy with some of the snapshots I got. The first lot I'll post up are from Sedona in Arizona. We arrived one day after a fairly nasty car crash in Pheonix, so it was good to get out of the city.

Sedona is famous for its incredible red-sandstone formations, and also as a mecca for the New Age movement. Many people flock here hoping to feel the power of spiritual vortices -- called vortexes by the locals -- where the earth's power is apparently concentrated. Whether you believe that or not, it's hard not to appreciate the beauty of the environment.

Bell Rock

Located on Hwy 179, Bell Rock is one of the first formations most visitors will come across. It's also supposedly the site of one of the most powerful vortexes, so don't be surprised to find people practicing yoga at the top.

Bell-rock

Bell-rock

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Built in 1956, this Roman-Catholic Chapel built right into the rock is one of the main tourist attractions in Sedona. Its orientation means it commands great views of Cathedral rock, Bell rock and Courthouse Butte as well as being naturally lit right until sun-set.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock from outside the Chapel

Cathedral Rock

Cathedral Rock is probably the most photographed place in Sedona, if not the whole of Arizona. Unfortunately when we visited we weren't blessed with particularly good skies or light, but it did give me a chance to try out my ND filter that has been sitting in my bag unused for a while. I think this was a 30 second exposure.

Devil's Bridge

Devil's bridge is a natural sandstone arch with a BIG drop below it. Even though I don't really have a fear of heights, this place was scary. It's not so bad when you are standing on it, but looks really narrow from a distance. The fact that there was a kid and his dog running around didn't help!

Devil's Bridge

After leaving Sedona, we headed to the Grand Canyon. I'll post those photos next.

Main gate.

Luckily it was a Monday so I didn't have to wait too long to take a picture without people in the way. Apparently there were so many visitors the day before that the road up there was blocked by traffic.

Daruma

People looking to succeed in sports, politics etc. can purchase "daruma" from the temple. These red dolls are sold without eyes. The recipient of the doll paints in one eye when they make a wish, then the other when the wish comes true. After that, the doll can be brought back to the temple and left somewhere on the grounds. There are hundreds of Daruma scattered around the grounds of Katsuo-ji.

The price of the daruma vary quite dramatically, with the largest ones setting you back up to 1,000,000 yen (10,000 dollars). I suppose if it wins you an election or keeps you alive, then that might be seen as a good investment.

Tahōtō pagoda

Nanzen-ji

First stop was Nanzenji Temple (南禅寺), one of Japan's most important Zen temples. It plays a supervising role in the "five mountain system" under the title "First Temple of The Land".

Its history dates back to the mid 13th century when Emperor Kameyama built his retirement villa here and later converted it into a zen temple. The oldest of the present buildings were built after the Muromachi civil wars (1333-1572) when all the previous buildings were destroyed. That's a recurring theme with Japanese historical sites; wooden buildings plus perpetual war aren't a good mix!

Tenjuan rock garden from Sanmon gate.

Tenjuan

Momiji through the bamboo

Eikando

Next was Eikando temple (永観堂), which is located just down the road from Nanzen-ji and is well known for its autumn colour.

Momiji (Japanese maple)

Fallen ginkgo leaves

Ginkaku-ji

About a 15 minute walk from Eikan-do along philosopher's road is Ginkaku-ji (銀閣寺; silver-pavilion temple).

Much like Nanzenji, this temple was created initially as a retirement home and then later converted into a temple. Commissioned by Ashikaga Yoshimasa, it was orignially intended to be covered in silver, emulating Kinkaku-ji (golden-pavilion temple) that was commissioned by Yoshimasa's grandfather Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Unfortunately that work could not be completed before Yoshimasa's death, so the temple remains in its unfinished state to this day. Because of this it is often cited as an example of the Japanese aesthetic of "wabi-sabi" (beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete").

Not so silver pavilion temple

The photos above may paint a picture of Kyoto as a quiet, serene place during this season. Unfortunately, reality is somewhat different:

When we got back into the centre of Kyoto we came across this anti-Nuclear protest. It was pretty amusing watching two very indecisive police officers eventually pluck up the courage to confront them. Didn't seem to make much difference though as the protest was still going a couple of hours later!

To finish the day off we stopped off for a beer at the Asahi restaurant before having a kebab and heading home.