IPPA/WNPA

This weekend was the combined Illinois Press Photographer Association/Wisconsin News Photographer Association annual convention in Madison, WI. It was an awesome time with good friends I hadn't seen in a long while as well as an inspiring experience seeing all the great work of the past year by students and professionals in both states... and even more inspirational were the awesome lineup of speakers- especially Dai Sugano and his awesome multimedia wizardry.

Anyway, it was a great weekend with great people, photos, and beer...

I shot my first freelance assignment the other day for the Dispatch and the Rock Island Argus- went up to DeKalb to shoot Rock Island High School playing in a Super Sectional game. They lost by 1 point in overtime. It was an extremely close game and really intense to cover. It's good to be somewhat back in the groove.

Back in the USA with new wheels!

It's been almost a week now since I've been home. It's definitely nice to just chill out and not always be on the move. I'm sure I'll get busy again soon. Traded in the 1990 Toyota Corolla today for a 2005 Toyota Matrix. Goodbye crazy squealing noise, hello larger cargo capacity, smoother driving and lots of airbags. Thanks a lot Dad!

Into the Jungle

Our final group for walking to El Mirador consisted of me, Stephanie and Daniel, a Swedish couple- Christian and Mikaela, and Simon from England. We left at 6am from Flores to a little town in the jungle called Carmileta. There we had breakfast at the house of the family of our guide, while the family packed all our bags and supplies onto 5 or 6 mules. Then we set off into the jungle with our guide, cook, mules and another guy to manage the mules. All I had to carry was a water bottle, with custom string shoulder strap, and of course my camera. I brought along my D70 with the 18-55mm kit lens since I knew I'd mostly be shooting in the daylight and it's the lightest configuration I had.

All of our nights we tented at archeological camps near Mayan ruins sites. Disturbingly, the guy that booked our tour forgot to include tent poles, so our guide Eric went into the woods at each of the campsites and cut perfect tent poles for us out of a certain type of tree branch. We spent the second and third nights camped at El Mirador, which has the largest Mayan temple ever built- La Danta. Originally it's thought to have been around 80 meters tall, but with degradation it's now about 72 meters tall. La Danta as well as pretty much all of the other pyramids and temples we visited were still covered in jungle. After 2000 years of lying dormant, the jungle has reclaimed all of these great cities. Hopefully 2000 years from now Chicago, LA, and New York won't be covered in forest. Good thing we're smart and aren't overpopulating, stressing our food supply and destroying our environment like those foolish societies of the past...

The last two photos are from the last camp we stayed at, which was currently serving as a camp for men cutting chate, a type of plant found in the Guatemalan jungle, which is used to make the green dye for United States Dollars. These guys spend weeks and months at a time living in these camps looking for this plant. The bundle our guide Eric is holding in the second to last picture sells for 3 Quetzales, which is like a little under 50 cents. If I ever return to Guatemala I'm going to do a photo story about some of these guys and live with them for a week or so in a camp while they work and live... all so we can have green money.

Anyway, it was a great trip- sunsets from the tops of pyramids, sleeping in cold uncomfortable tents, talking with good people... what more is there.

And that's it from Guatemala.

Cheers,
Pat

Tikal and Flores

I left San Juan on February 27th- took a boat across the lake from San Pedro to Panajachel where I'd booked busses to take me to Flores in the northern jungle reigon of Guatemala called the Peten. After like 10 or so hours of riding on a bus, I arrived in Flores at 6am on Feb. 28th. I had some breakfast and then went to Los Amigos hostel to look for tour recommendations for a trip to El Mirador, a 6 day walk in the jungle to and from the largest Mayan pyramid ever built. At Los Amigos the guy that recommends tours hooked me up with Stephanie and Daniel, a couple from Germany who wanted to do the tour as well. I went to Tikal for the day with Stephanie and Daniel and explored the ruins with them and an Australian chap named Luke. Tikal is the biggest tourist attraction in Guatemala- definitely the best restored and most accessible Mayan ruins in the country, and a city of as much importance as any in Mexico. After we got back from our day tour we checked out some sort of festival going on in Flores. Good stuff.

Centro Maya

I left San Juan 2 Fridays ago. Here's a group shot of everyone at the center. It was sad to leave everyone- the kids, the family I was living with, and the other volunteers who became good friends. It was definitely an awesome experience and I hope to return someday. Possibly next winter if I'm again jobless and want to flee the cold. Vamos a ver.

Food Distribution 2

I went to another food distribution for the families in Bob and Jeanne's food assistance program a few weeks ago. It was good to see all the families again. By now I pretty much know all of them and a lot of their kids who go to Centro Maya or have siblings that do.