Ah yes, today is the story of how we got scammed by a kid. It’s moments like these where I realize I don’t know shit about the world.

Today we hit the real jungles of Mexico. Just when I thought Tulum was top tier, Palenque came in to show us who’s boss.

Back on that ruins grind. For some reason I feel like it’s this weakness in landscapes that I can’t seem to shake. But I think I cracked the code today. At least partially.

We’d just about dropped my buddy Tyler off at the airport after traveling with him for the past week, when it hit me. The COVID, that is. I somehow managed to avoid it the entire past week that he’d had it living in our van, until now.

Last photoshoot of 2021, baby. And to be honest, I’m still not entirely sure how I made this all happen. We’re literally in the Yucatan living in a van right now, living the photography dream.

Alright, alright, alright! So by now you’re wondering if our COVID had kicked in yet. The very COVID we had (unknowingly) caught a few days prior on Christmas. We were in the middle of nowhere. And that is precisely when the COVID started to kick in.

If I were to describe any place as a burning tourist hell, I don’t think anywhere would fit the bill better than Chichén Itzá in Mexico.

And with the holidays officially over, we were off. Three people, one van- driving straight into the heart of the Yucatan. Today’s adventure was at one of the biggest cenotes in Mexico- Cenote Ik Kil.

Today’s adventure was a bit of a shorty, mainly because it was Christmas day. But since it was my first Christmas away from home, we had plans to make it different.

Today I confronted my fear of open sea snorkeling. Not a rational fear, but I’ve spent way too much time browsing r/thalassophobia and the open ocean now plays with my mind.

We’re back, baby. And on my first day back in Cancun, I somehow managed to break my toe. Partly because I’m a fucking idiot, and partly because Haley’s a fucking idiot. Either way we’re both idiots.

Tulum is a strange hybrid blend of modern age hippie and upper class Mexico. It’s one of those towns you could be completely content just people watching all day long. However, I must confess something before we get started.

Part of me still can’t believe we made it all the way to the east side of the Yucatan from Washington state. Even though it took 6 months to get here, we’d been driving like madmen the past three days. I think we just about hit 18 hours.

There’s a certain kind of stare that people give when you’re not welcome. It’s not to be confused with the stare of uncertainty, or the stare of cluelessness. It’s a stare that makes your nerves tingle like a fuse on 4th of July.

Damn, this was a difficult shoot. Almost all the conditions were stacked against us. But I managed to pull through. Somehow. Apparently the Mayan Gods enjoyed our company.

We woke up outside Grutas Tolantanga around 7:30am, and were greeted by a line of cars at the entry. But it didn’t quite seem like the entry… It looked like some type of chaotic blockade. People were getting in and out of their cars, and smoke was blowing everywhere. What the fuck…

OK, I lied. Remember when I said I was exhausted after shooting La Poza? Turns out I had one more shoot in me for the day.

I was in a wretched mood when today’s shoot started, which was ironic because we were shooting at a Zen surrealist garden in the middle of the jungle.

Finding a four leaf clover is a rare genetic mutation. It’s estimated that one in every five thousand clovers has four leafs. Today I found one.

Today the research finally paid off. FINALLY. We shot at Cascada de Micos just north of Mexico City, and even jumped off a waterfall or two.