Plant

Plant

A nice plant I saw on Quebec,
Thanks to Jolene now I know its named Scotch Broom.
Its pretty.

Kisses
Jessica

Door

Door

A frame of stone, black and cold, in carved square with perfect angles, frmaing a wooden door, soft and polished, without decorations. Soft lines only interrupted by a lock.
Antique, out of place in this modern world of electronic doors, keeping perhaps a secret of old times, or maybe a forgotten treasure.
So much time has passed, that all thief are now electronics experts, its only her that knows the techniques to open this kind of lock. Othewise he would have tried himself.
Curios, to see how she beleives that with only three pieces of wire she wants to defeat that metallic monster. Such a rudimentary technique.
Looks like a game of ages ago, like the chinesse sticks his aunts used to play.

Then a click sounds, a smile draws in her face, her cheecks rise, her eyes shine. He notices then how pretty she is, too bad she usually is so cruel.
Sh raises, facing him, with that look of her in the eyes, bit sadistic, that has always scared him.
With a hand on the door, and another on her chest, she says "Its open now, but I doubt it will let you go inside"
She pushes both, the surprise of the movement, or maybe the loss of concentration on looking her, have made him loose balance. He falls observing how she crosses the door frame.
Around her soluitte before it closes, he manages to see, it was just an empty room

Then he understands, the treasure was her, and it was him who locked her away.
There are the little wires, the only tools nedded to release her. He tries, and tries, but if it looked so easy, like a game.
Damn you modern things, now both trapped.


PS. about the photo, is a door handle I saw, and I liked.

Le Chateau Frontenac

Le Chateau Frontenac

The pictures of the trip to Canada are back.
I knwow, I know I been posting them for a long, long time. I promise to try to finish them as quickly as I can.

Also this week been a bit tiresome, everyday, staying at office till over midnight. No time to anything.
Hopefully weekend goes well.

Also there is hurricane alert, we are at the moment in just "pay attention to news" state. Yellow alert, I think is called.
They expect it to hit the other side of the peninsula monday or tuesday.

Me prays it does not hit over there, or not hard, Please hurrican be nice. A special tought to my friend on Cancun.
Also that the rain of the borders does not flood us.

Well back to the photo. This is "Le Chateau Frontenac", that is a very luxurious hotel in Quebec.
I posted two images, since I couldn't decide which one to show off, the light time one, or the night shot. Both just look amazing.

Kisses
Jessica

Flores Night Shot

Flores Night Shot

A pic taken from the balcony at my hotel,
Flores in Guatemala

I liked the reflections.

Flores Guatemala

Flores Guatemala

So I did travelled to the south
To the country of Guatemala.
My plan to see the Mayan ruins of Tikal.

To go there, is a nice long bus travel. From the island I live aproximately, 16 hours by bus, to the Island of Flores.

A nice little town, build in an island in the middle of the Lake Peten. Very pretty. The lake is huge.

Also a nice place to swim, and there is nothing better, to relax after a long bus trip, with the warm hot weather, than to take a nice swimming in the nice calmed waters of the Peten Lake.

The pictures.
Top a nice photo of a guy in his boat with his dog, cruising along the Lake.
Bottom, is the island of Flores, seen from a boat.

Kisses
Jessica

AguaSelva, San Cristobal, my broken camera and some other places in Chiapas.

AguaSelva, San Cristobal, my broken camera and some other places in Chiapas.


Thats a long title.
Well , it was a 3 day weekend here in Mexico. Spring time celebration (actually it's the day of some past-president, but I prefer to think it's because of start of spring)
SO I decided to visit a few Places around Chiapas.

I visited a nice watefalls in the limits of Tabasco and Chiapas called AguaSelva, really nice, quite some pretty flowers, but many plants were still missing flowers, too early.
Then I arrived to the lovely town of San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas.It's a really lovely town. With a really lovely architecture.
Many churches, some of them in top of the hills around, so did lots of walking and climbing.
Also its a really nice place to see and buy tradicional handicrafts. Plus lots of girls use the traditional clothing, which adds a lot of mistique to the town.
Lots of tourists there, mostly from different countries. And lot of them return to live there, and so it has lots of variety in amenities.
A great place to have fun as well, a very varied nightlife. It was fun.

Next day I went out , on the road to my destination, I saw a waterfall place, and there the accident Happened, my camera, fell into the water, ME SAD, ME CRYING, my camera is now dead, kaput, broken, no sirve. :(
Then to the Lagunas of Montebello (Montebello Lagoon), it seems to be a really nice place, unfortunately, it was really, really cold, and with lots of fog.
So couldn't see all the lagoon at their true beauty, but anyway it was an interesting spectacle to see the fog. Also was nice to remeber how it is to be in a forest with very cold weather.
On my return I passed to a Cave near San Cristobal, quite impressive. Also forest, lots of pines.

Last day, I went to a town near San Cristobal called San Juan Chamula. Wow that town is really interesting.
First thing, they do not allow to take pictures of people, ceremonies, inside the church, or you can go to jail (and not the usual jail, since the town has its own law)
There is only one church in the town, that looks like a catholic church, but it is really not. First there is no priest, the priest only goes to the San Juan day, and to do baptism.
There is no chairs, altar is different, composed of three figure, Christ, San Juan, and another San Juan. And apparently its representing the 3 creation mayan gods, and the sun god.
Saints are on the side walls. The ground is covered with pine leaves (to make the ground holly). Lots of candles everywhere (Its a simbol of feeding the gods, plus the fire is a purifier)
Peope doing prayers in front of the candles, in tzotzil or tzetzal (mayan languages), throwing alochol and soda to the candles to feed the fire.
And while there, in one of the altars, a girl took a chicken, passed over the candles fire, then around the body of the woman who was also praying , and then killed the chicken. Apparently is a soul-healing process.
Our guide also took us around town, explainned us about the crosses than can be seen around town, that looks like the catholic cross, but it is not, it's a mayan one, simbol of the Ceiba, the holly tree.
And while there we got to enter into the house of one of the religous authorities, to see the altar of one Saint, the even lets us try the home-made alcohol they do and use.
Very interesting place.

So I am happy, it was a really fun weekend, got to see lots of beautifull and interesting places.

But now I am sad, my camara is dead, I will need to buy a new one :(

Kisses
Jessica.

PS, about the photos.
Top Line, is the main church in San Cristobal, REally nice I like the colors. I posted both a day pic and a night pic, I liked the contrast.
Middle line, two little kiosks around San Cristobal, really pretty.
Last line, some pics from the waterfalls in AguaSelva

Original http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/428583515_e737080742_b.jpg

Tired, Burned, Happy. In Mahahual

Ok, this last weekend was a 3 day weekend here in Mexico
So I decided to take a little trip to a place called Mahahual. Its located in the state of Quintana Roo. In the cost of the caribbean sea.
Its a really nice place. It's a little fisher town, that suddenly got tourist attention. But is still small. So no big fancy city things like other beach places.
But Mahahual doesn't need fancy atractions, it has the beauty of nature just to make it one of the best beach places.
Really calm, clean, almost virgin beaches, in lots of blue tones of the Caribbean.
Lots of friendly people, from all parts of the world living there.
Great place to eat sea food.
Apparently great place for fishing.
And it has a small coral reef just a few meters away from the beach.
And just one hour away by boat, there is the Chinchorro coral Bank, the second largest in America (that's what the diving guide said).

So what I did, mainly swim in the calm pretty blue waters on the beach, did some kayak sailing also.
And did two snorkeling trips, one to the near coral reef, and one to Chinchorro Coral bank.

And I must say WOOOOOOOOOOOW, the beauty of what I saw under water, is just amazing.
Now I want two things, to buy an underwater camera. And learn how to dive, just hearing all the cool fishes that the guys who went diving, made me jelous.
And if I saw some really cool fish, corals, and other sea animals, and that was awesome, I can just imagine how much many other things you can see in deeper waters.

Anyway, it was a great weekend, I am happy. Also tired and with some burn from the sun, but thats ok.

Now to the photos.

Top Left, a see of one of the beach points in Mahahual.
Top Right, just before sunrise, lovely colors.
Medium Left, some pelicans, lots of birds there, it was incredible to see them dive to catch their meals.
Medium Right, a look of the beach line from the boat.
Bottom Left, a shot from the boat in the middle of the sea, lovely blue tones of the caribbean sea.
Bottom Middle, a little rainbow from away.
Bottom Right, the moon, a shot by night. I don't know how to take night photos, either the moon appears to bright as in the pic, or too small and everything is black.

So thats all

Kisses
Sea Jessica

PS. will have to wait a little for new Jessica's pics, have to wait for burned skin to heal before aplying make-up.


to see it bigger, go here http://farm1.static.flickr.com/152/383077212_13c89639be_o.jpg

Izamal Part 2

As told yesterday, Izamal mixes two periods of time. The pyramids I already showed. and the religious architecture from the Spanish conquista Time and the old haciendas.
Perhaps by putting them appart in the photo collections I have took the magic of the mix away, maybe. But then maybe, that way you can see both things so different and try to imagine them together.

So I will go on to the pics.

Top Left, is a photo of one of the streets in the main area of Izamal, All painted in Yellow, with little withe details. It makes the town look so similar and different. Since it show the creativity of the house owners to make their houses unique, even when being so similar.
Top Center, is a photo of the Patio and Front face of the Main church, the Temple of the Pure Conception (translation probably doesn't make sense, so the name in spanish is "templo de la Purisima Concepcion") that also worked as convent. Is a really big patio, I wanted so much to start running around in the green grass (but is not allowed).
Top Right, is a photo of the detail of the window in the front of the church. A nice work of color glass, picturing the virgin of Izamal. Says there that the virgin was brought from Guatemala, and also at some point a group of people try to steal them, and it became so heavy they could not lift it.
Medium Left, is a nice kiosk in one of the parks in Izamal, during the day it is quite empty, sun and hot weather, but once night arrives the parks get crowded of people, and is really nice.
Medium Center, is a photo of the back part of the church, and the building that works as convent, "the Convent of San Francisco de Pauda". I liked this picture I took by night since it makes it look even older (and yes a bit scary)
Medium Right, some corner in Izamal have names, like the corner of the bull, the corner of the flower, or in this case the corner of the elefant. Really nice.
Bottom Left, in the park next to the main church, there is this carriages with horses named "Calesas", for a small fee they can take you around town, explaining a little bit of the buildings. Really Nice trip. Plus even when walking around town, the clip-clip, clash sounds of the Calesas moving around is amazing.
Bottom Center, is a photo of the church patio by sun-down, before night arrived. I like the clouds, and that green low in the corner.
Bottom Right, is one of the Henequen Fields around Izamal. Henequen was used to make bags, cest, furniture, and was the main economic power in Yucatan, Big haciendas and fortunes where made of Henequen. Now it is mainly used for handicrafts and liquor.

Ok, thats just a taste of Izamal.
By night they make a light and sound show in the church patio really great.
I am posting a short clipp video of it over youtube -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee5uA4obEFw
Its not all, it looks dark, and it looks out of frame, since I mainly just put the camera over my knee to record and forgot about it while I looked the show.

Well, thats it for today.

Kisses
Jessica, who now sees yellow everywhere.

For bigger image go here http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/367331514_8303f9ffe7_o.jpg

Pyramids of Izamal

This weekend I Went to the lovely town of Izamal, and it does live to the name of "Magical Town" that tourist autorities give.

The town has a mix of 2 times, that gives it that special touch.
It has Mayan pyramids, so you can feel the energy of the ancient times.
It has Colonial Architecture, from the times of the Spanish Conquista and the old Haciendas.
It really is an interesting Mix.

So today, I will show you the first part, the Pyramids.
So the little booklet says that the Mayan City, was dedicated to Itzamna (which gave the name Izamal when put it in Spanish) the creator. It was also a place of cult to Kinich, the god of Sun.
It was one of the big CEremonial Cities of the Mayans, only rivaled by _Uxmal and ChichenItza.
There were supposed to be 7 pyramids there on the mayan times, I saw 5 visited them, another one is located under the church (that makes 6), The other one probably is still to be found, or lost.
There are houses, around the pyramids, Imagine how cool it would be to say "I live next to a pyramid".

Now to the pictures.

Top Left, Is the view of the Pyramid of Kinich Kak Moo, which is the third biggest Mayan Pyramid in Mexico. The Photo was taken from the top of the Piramid of Itzamatul
Top Right, Is a close Photo of the top Pyramid of Kinich. You can climb all the way, and get a super view of the town.
Middle Left, a detail of one Pyramid.
Middle Right, this is another photo of the top of Kinich Pyramid. You climb some stirs to a fits top of the pyramid, and there you see , that there is that second Pyramid back there, more to climb.
Bottom Left, is the side of the pyramid of Habuc.
Bottom Right, Is the pyramid of Itzamatul, also good one to climb, and with a great view.

Bye for now

Jessica, the Silly Archeologist.


To see the bigger image go here http://farm1.static.flickr.com/121/365985178_1b86678633_o.jpg