Beauty in the Land and in the Humanity

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to put together last minute plans to travel to Cancun, Mexico. It has been a long 2020 and travel was almost null.

Obviously, the location was remarkably beautiful, at times breathtaking. What was surprising to me was how absolutely kind, thoughtful, safe and hardworking the many people with whom we came in contact were.

Since I already had my run with Coronavirus, I wasn’t overly concerned for myself, but I was more concerned for Ann, who was traveling with me. Prior to going I researched the flights, hotel transfers, and hotels for Covid protocols.

I felt somewhat optimistic that it would be fine. However, when we got there, I found out that we were more than fine, we were in capable, caring hands. The Mexican people, tourists and service workers killed it with safety measures. I can say without a shadow a doubt that I felt 100 times more comfortable in Mexico than I have here in the U.S..

Back to travel stuff…I did not take a lot of pictures this trip. For four days, I only took roughly 1200 pix. For a trip of this length, that easily could be 4 times that amount.

We went to Cancun because we wanted to get some serious beach time and see some Mayan ruins. Hence the photos I am sharing below.

The sunrises were amazing. I am sharing a bunch of early morning pix below from the beach. I will start with Saturday, then Sunday and Monday.

Saturday

*Two friends enjoy a barefoot morning walk*

SUNDAY

*Capturing the moment – I totally dig that Ann gets into finding the right image*

ANN’s SUNDAY MORNING SNAPS

Ann also loves to take pix and it’s a good thing because she has a terrific eye. She really works a scene and there were several times on the trip I was thinking, “Darn, she is out shooting me right now!!” SO then I broke her legs and threw her into the lovely blue water and a killer whale ate her for breakfast.

I am not competitive.

Below are some of her amazing pix.

*Perhaps one of the Top 3 pix from the trip…taken by Ann*

*I loveee this perspective that she found*

*I like this one with the pelicans in the scene*

*Like the white to the blue to the sun reflection to the dark horizon*

SUNDAY AFTERNOON

After spending the early morning at the beach, we hopped in our rental car and made the 2.5 hour drive to Chichen Itza, aka Chicken Pizza. (Yes, there is a story there.) I first visited the Mayan ruins 30 years ago. At that time we were able to climb up the stair of the Temple of Kukulkan shown below.

*Ann’s pic of the Group of 1000 Columns*

*Ann’s creative perspective of the ball court serpent and the Temple*

*A corner of the 1,000 column plaza overgrown with foliage*

One of the other things that was quite remarkable at the site was all of the Mayan arts and crafts for sale as you walk up to the site and walkthrough it.

*Ann checks out the blankets. She bought one for $20 U.S.*

*On the way out we had some AMAZING homemade tacos that were*
*rustically prepared on the side of the road*

Ann LOVES jewelry and SILVER jewelry. It was EVERYWHERE long with many other groovy things.

After leaving Chichen Itza, we drove to Valladolid for dinner. We loved the church in town and the plaza/town square. There were birds everywhere and they were LOUD.

*Looking inside the church right after a service was completed*

MONDAY

Monday after spending a few moments at our beach and photography the calm water, we drove north up the coast and found an amazing beach with incredible color.