One of my favorite Mayan ruins to take people to is Ek Balam. It's only about 2 hours away and it was the girls favorite thing we did.
I was so blessed to have all 3 of my daughters visit me at the same time!! Annie flew in from Santa Fe, New Mexico and Laura and Bonnie from Austin,Texas. Here we are eating out at La Terraza Restuarant on the square in Puerto Morelos. I am happy!
We stopped at a small roadside restaurant near Tulum and there in the midst of all the condiments was a log nest of stingless bees. These tiny dark creatures resemble flies at first glance, but upon closer inspection, I noticed they were going into a carefully sculpted entrance (circled in red and zoomed in below).
For thousands of years Mayans kept STINGLESS bees (Melipona beecheii) before the Spanish arrived, but these have gradually been replaced by European races of honeybees (Apis mellifera), which I understand to be somewhat more honey-producing than the stingless ones. Mayan bee keepers harvested honey from the log nests of stingless bees to use as a sweetener, as an antibiotic and as an ingredient in the Mayan version of mead. Stingless bee keeping in the Yucatan has declined drastically due to cultural change and habitat loss. Most of these beekeepers are old men living in rural areas where no one inherits their knowledge of the fine art of how to propogate bees by dividing nests. There seems to be a renewed interest amongst a select few and so it’s really nice to see these honey producers in a populated area. Bees are probably the MOST important insect in the world as their role of pollination is critical to plants and then probably a myriad of other roles that we have yet to discover!
Today our expedition/film team documented a recent find of skeletons deep within a local cenote. I can't disclose which one or any details.... 
The divers entered the underwater cave through a cenote. 
Here you can see the bubbles as they are about to ascend after an 88 minute dive. And remember it's COLD down there!
Today there was a Sand Sculpture Contest at the Beach Bar....several entries with prizes- Thank you Sarah! I was one of 6 judges who all did a shot of Tequila before judging HA!.....here are Catriona (Australia), Cindy (Austin, Texas), and Annette (Louisiana)with their guitar creation. 
The octopus created by a team of women won 2nd place. 
The Mermaid with her natural parts came in 1st.
This weekend we had a presentation of local talent, actually it was the closing ceremony for a weeklong theatre presentation from various artists. Here in the park gazebo beginning at sundown is a local band Gnomos. 
Following was the flamenco dance class that did an amazing performance!! We were all so proud of Dinah!! I was taking lessons but due to too many absences and pure fear of this performance I did not continue. I will take credit for making 2 of the skirts though! Maite, the dance teacher, wowed everyone with her solo performance! 
There must have been 150 Mexicans standing in line trying to get visas and I was ushered to an area with no line!! Unbelievable...so easy! Merida is a really nice colonial city about 4 hours west of here. I stayed with friends
Ralf and Yvonne, who have remodeled a downtown house hacienda style...
and then we went to hang out at their beachhouse near Progresso for a couple days lounging by the pool with a view of the Gulf of Mexico.....poor me! 
Our expedition team will have this Unimog for traveling! They are amazing 4 wheel drive vehicles with high ground clearance and capacity to carry lots of equipment. The box on the back is completely sound proof and we can edit in comfort as we go down the road! It is at the Mercedes-Benz place right now waiting on brake parts mainly. What an adventure this will be!!
These giant crystals found deep (1000 feet) inside an old siver,zinc and lead mine below Naica Mountain in the Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico were discovered by 2 miners in the year 2000. We were supposed to go, but there was a mixup with our permit and the Italian scientists were having their time, so we will go back in September and I hope this will be ME in the photo!! These gypsum crystals were formed submerged in mineral rich water. The temperature down there is around 136 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), so one cannot stay long. Imagine the energy!!!
The smell inside that place is incredibly delicious! Mole is prepared with dried chile peppers (commonly ancho, pasilla, mulato and chipotle), ground nuts and/or seeds (almonds, indigenous peanuts, and/or sesame seeds), spices, Mexican chocolate (cacao ground with sugar and cinnamon and occasionally nuts),
salt, and a variety of other ingredients including charred avocado leaves, onions, garlic. We even took some on our camping trip and had fireside enchiladas with mole...WoW!
This village is about 2 hours southwest of Mexico City tucked away in the mountains nestled along Lake Avándaro. It is a natural area with tall pine trees, flowers everywhere and known for a popular paragliding 
destination because of the thermal winds and the topography. It was the end of Semana Santa so there were lots of activities and good food!
The indigenous Temascaltepec Indian women in the square.
The significance of that is that most of the LARGE bronze sculpures were done last year!! As you can see she is a surrealist artist,
I had seen the video in Cancun, but being inside this "nomadic" museum was really moving !!The exhibit includes 200 sepia-toned photographs and a film by Canadian-born artist Gregory Colbert, housed in a soaring, temple-like structure built of shipping containers and bamboo that now occupies the Zocolo in Mexico City. It's a striking, stripped-down setting that, with its dramatic lighting and piped-in, meditative music, 
is an appropriate setting for Colbert's images of elephants, lemurs and dolphins and the beautiful models he has posing with them. I think my favorite was his swimming with the whales.
just sold for $52 million dollars (US). First realtor I have known who specializes in selling skyscrapers! This other one is the tallest skyscraper in all of Latin America at 55 floors...Torre Mayor...
remember that Mexico City is built on a lake bed and these buildings have to be earthquake resistant, unlike the buildings in New York City that are built on rock. I even rode the metro (subway)...and I can tell you that I was the only white person there...I saw some strange things, but felt very safe with my friend.
Had dinner at a landmark restaurant...Cafe de Tacuba..founded 1912. I will most likely be back to this city to do some editing for the documentary and I look forward to it!
A surreal landscape, made of 99% pure white gypsum sand, these dunes are located in the same valley as the fresh water pools of Cuatro Ciénegas.
The dunes are formed by sand collecting around some vegetation and then they grow. Some of them are huge! 
I accidentally left my sandals there, but luckily we went back the next day to do some more filming and Voila! they were there right where I left them. There was a hellashish sandstorm that started as soon as we arrived, getting sand in every conceivable place...not too good for camera equipment you can imagine. 
We decided to stay after dark and celebrate a good days work! And to look for nocturnal animal life amoung the vegetation....we found spiders....good for our arachnid scientist.
Jerónimo being creative with our lights and his time exposure photography!
