Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 20: Cozumel, Mexico.
Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 6: Guatemala.
We arrived at San Francisco de Sales, a small hamlet in Pacaya Volcano National Park. As soon as we got off the bus we were mobbed by children selling (or renting) wood walking sticks. The price started at $1 US per stick, and quickly dropped to 2/$1. Before starting the hike we had lunch (chicken or beef with rice and vegetables). We were also given the option to ride a horse for $10 US. I decided to take this option since I had a good experience riding horses earlier this year in Patagonia. Unlike the ride in Patagonia, each horse had guide lead the horse up the trail. My guide was Antonio, and the horse I rode was named “Champion”. Much of the trail was in the clouds. Each time the group stopped to rest, the horse guides without riders yelled “taxi taxi”. Rob soon decided that he needed a taxi. At one point it started to rain, and I got to wear an authentic poncho. Near the end of the trail, we got off the horses and did the remainder of the trail on foot. We went past some hot vents — warm enough for some of the folks to roast marshmallows. There was another large tunnel that the more adventurous entered. When we got back to San Francisco de Sales, the kids that had earlier sold the walking stick looked to get them back. There was a real pecking order, with the larger boys retrieving more of the sticks. Some of the passengers did take the walking sticks back to the ship. There was a concern that the kids guiding the horses and selling the walking sticks should have been in school.
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Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 5: At Sea.
Our second day at sea while traveling from Cabo San Lucas in Mexico to Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala. Most of the day was spent in the classroom with Michael. Images for the day include Sunrise, Sunset, and folks from the workshop while at sea. More use of digital post processing tools from Focus Magic, NIK (Color Efex, Define), and Topaz (Detail, DeNoise).
Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 4: At Sea.
We have two days at sea while traveling from Cabo San Lucas in Mexico to Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala. Most of the day was spent in the classroom with Michael. Images for the day include sunrise, sunset, and photography workshop members while at sea.
Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 3: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
We arrived at Cabo San Lucas early in the morning well before sunrise. My other post for the day documents the sun rising. The shadow self-portrait was taken during the sunrise session.
Rather than docking, the ship anchored off shore and then used the life-boats as tenders to transport the passengers to and from shore. There were some swells that rocked the ship making the transfer from the MV Explorer to the tender difficult, and a very slow process. Folks that were supposed to leave the ship at 07:00 didn’t leave until after 09:00. During the day I took a series of images of the Arch at Land’s End as viewed from my cabin window, with a Norwegian Troll sitting at the window.