We are always thankful to travel. Especially together. The experience is bonding and so special to us. We are always especially thankful when we get to travel for work. We got to do just that earlier this year. Megan + Chris invited us along to capture their destination wedding festivities in The Riviera Maya. Mexico was a first for the both of us. A definite location on our travel list, but had yet to make a priority. Perhaps because of its close proximity or maybe due to its reputation of being overly touristy. Either way, we were excited to finally experience Mexico while photographing a beach wedding. Val's b-day was just six days after the wedding, so naturally we extended our stay to celebrate in warmth.
Our trip began at the gorgeous all-inclusive Azul Sensatori where we spent 3 days for the wedding. Monday, we packed up and moved south to an adults only all-inclusive at The El Dorado Royale where we spent the next 5 days. Our trips are always well documented, but we might have over done it this time having eight different kinds of cameras: D700, Minolta x700, Fuji Instax Polaroid, Go Pro, iPhone, Nexus 5, Nikon CoolPix S8100, and for this trip we were generously provided a Sony A7S and a Zeiss 16-35mm from ATS Rentals just for fun.
Top 3 favorite things:
1.) .80 c Al Pastor tacos at Los Otates in Cozumel. The best tacos we had all week. The back story...We took a day trip to the island which included a 45 minute ferry ride, a 15 minute cab ride, and then a 3 hour vomit-filled boat snorkeling excursion. Val gets car sick even if she's the passenger in a car here in town. To say this was not her favorite day is an understatement. At least the fish were well fed. The end of the day led us to Los Otates where we ate Al Pastor tacos for the first time.
2.) Tulum! Slow moving. Less touristy. Fresh and authentic food. Warm and beautiful waters. The seafood is incredible and the warm waters were impossible to leave. They were especially nice knowing a blizzard was taking place back home. ;)
3.) Sitting on the beach with nothing to do. Typically, a vacation for us involves a lot of exploring. It's not that we're not relaxing or sleeping in, or taking time to just chill, but we just usually enjoy getting out there and seeing things. It's a bit of an adjustment for the both of us to literally sit on a beach and do nothing for hours. However, it was nice enjoying all you can drink while lounging beach side.
Mexico was grand. We brought a shit ton of hot sauce home along with a tan. Well, Val brought the tan home. I brought the hot sauce. Until next time,
Jeff + Val
