19
Dec
2009
New Years 2010 Deciphered
Since I’ve been in my own little world lately, I figured I should get in at least one blog update before rushing off for my 6th New Years abroad. In this order, the past five were Edinburgh’s Hogmanay street party, Rome’s Piazza della Repubblica, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay (rained out, drying off in a tiny hotel room watching Paolo Nutini sing in Edinburgh Castle on TV), a night train from Cairo to Aswan in Egypt, and a beach party in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. You never know when this string of celebrations will, for good or not, end. In fact, had I not sold my house in November, I’m not sure I would have felt so free to make these plans, particularly for a bit beyond a month of time on the road!
I also rarely posted trip specifics before, but it’s amazing how much more free you feel when you don’t have to ponder that you’re advertising an empty house! So, as things stand, I leave Dec 26th bound for Dublin, Ireland. I arrive the 27th and will be there a whole night! The morning of the 28th, I’ll be hopping straight on to a 6 day Paddywagon bus tour that rings around the whole isle. Granted you can only see so much in such a short period, but I’m considering it the appetizer. Beyond that, I have literally no plans until I leave for Paris on the 23rd of January. So, I have weeks to spend in Dublin certainly and perhaps revisiting somewhere from the tour or I’m looking a lot at the Aran Islands off the Southwestern coast. The largest island, Inis Mor, is about 9 miles long and at its widest point, about 3 miles wide. At this time of the year, there won’t be many tourists and it’s mostly a pedestrian place with some awesome prehistoric forts and beautiful geography. The photos I’ve seen of it call my name, but there’s a chance that somewhere I visit at the outset will call me back louder. Any one with Ireland suggestions, by all means, feel free to drop them my way!
On the 23rd, bound for Paris for 5 nights before returning home for winter and more reflection time. You see, at the outset of this grand experiment, the plan was firmly spending my savings on some good old fashioned travel time. And it may well stay that way, but I’m also toying with the idea of spending some of my savings on something a bit more lasting if I can find the right place, probably in one of Georgia’s “second cities” - preferably closer to the mid-state. It may surprise some of you that I nearly put down an offer on a house in Macon this month. At the literal last moment, I decided to shelve that idea for the moment.
Why not Atlanta? Atlanta was a chapter of my life I wouldn’t exchange. Like any good book, it had its highs and lows, and it set the stage for learning how much I loved seeing the world beyond and, of course, it was where I learned to love being behind a camera so much. But I also don’t relish returning to Atlanta. I would not be so bold as to say never. There’s especially some soft spots in my heart for intown Atlanta where I lived my first two years. They were the poorest years of my life (getting started after college), when every penny mattered, but it seemed everything was on my doorstep of my tiny apartment and it was the most diverse community in which I’ve lived. So, you can see, genuinely no hard feelings, but I have also grown weary of the size of Atlanta, not the people but the sprawl, for now anyway. Each trip back to see friends or handle business has reminded me what it’s like to sit in grid lock traffic and how frustrated I got not being able to get somewhere 10 miles away in less than an hour. If Atlanta can ever escape the car and embrace mass transit, it could be an awesome place.
So, I may come back at the end of January and decide to start down a new path, or I may come back and plan some more travel starting in Spring, or if I have an incredible light bulb go off, I may figure out a way to do some of column A and some of column B.
Where did this new direction come from? While I was already reading a lot about small living before my summer adrift, I’ve had a lot of time to really read about a lot of different topics, specifically centering around small living, urban homesteading, and trying to have a smaller impact on the world. And I don’t per se see myself in a travel camper (believe it or not, heavily considered), I do see that even my 1,500 sq foot town house was more than I ever needed alone. There are families, living in less space than I had to myself. Some are actually here in the US, but most you’d read about here have done so out of choice, i.e. the (hopefully) growing realization that we don’t really NEED 3,000 square foot houses. All they become is places to pile more and more belongings. Anyone who saw my storage unit would know that I’m in no danger of becoming an ascetic monk soon, but I have over the past few years (and will continue to) shed some of the things in my life that are truly just retaining space. Having a smaller place to keep your stuff is its own mandate to deal with excess. And if I can wing a way not to be paying for that space over 30 years of my life, all the better. When you look at how much of your budget is spent on your house and all the stuff in it, you’ll realize that those mortgages are not just a promise to pay a loan but an anchor to a way of life that may not offer you as much satisfaction as you thought.
Anyway, before I get all mystic and hippie-like here, I’ll let it go at that. I’m happy to discuss with anyone who’s interested and you are free to use it for my sanity hearing later. 
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
I hope that everyone out there who I’ve known over the years has an awesome holiday! This is as close to a card as I’m sending, but the sentiment is heart felt. Even if I don’t talk to you every day, I think of people I knew last week as well as many years ago quite often. And even if I’m awful at responding, I love to hear from you about what’s going on in your lives! Merry Christmas and Happiest year ahead to you all!
10
Jul
2009
Puuc Hills – Uxmal & Kabah Prints
If you’re ever planning a trip into the Yucatan to see ruins, you should really try to get into the Puuc Hills. From Mérida, Uxmal and Kabah are an easy day trip, but there are more Puuc Hill ruins to see to the extent I wish I had more time when I visited to travel a bit further afield. None-the-less, the ruins I did see were excellent. The ruins in this area of the country have the distinction of having a style of Maya architecture named for them. They are also different from their low land counterparts in not being built over Cenotes (sink hole access points to the underground rivers of the Yucatan). Instead, the Maya built large cisterns in these cities to capture rain water for the dry months. If the theory that droughts were largely responsible for the end of the Maya way of life, these people were probably the first to suffer.
Uxmal, the first place I visited is still touristed but not nearly so heavily as Chichen Itza. People were living at Uxmal around 500 AD. It flourished for sometime as the main city in the region, but it’s star dropped after the fall of Chichen Itza. By the time the Spanish arrived, Uxmal was already largely abandoned.
Uxmal - The Nuns Quadrangle
This is part of a large complex of buildings adjacent to the main pyramid at Uxmal. The first Spaniards to study this location thought that it looked like a nuns convent, hence the name. It’s believed that these buildings may have been a school for princes. This was the last building of the quadrangle, note the masks on the corner, these are masks of Chac Mool, the rain god, and are on each corner of this building. Also note the elaborated decorations. This is typical of the Puuc style. The prominence of Chac Mool highlights the importance of rain to the people living here.
Palacio del Gobernador - Uxmal, Mexico
This is another of the buildings at Uxmal, said to be one of the best examples of the Puuc style. Built in the 9th an 10th centuries, it was probably an administration building for the region. As with other Maya buildings, it is aligned with the heavens, the main door lines up with the planet Venus.
Inheritance of the Maya
The site of Kabah is yet less touristed and there’s been far less reconstruction here. There was a city here as early as the 3rd century which reached it’s height around the 8th. By the 11th century, the site was abandoned. This palace appears to have had 30 or more rooms and is remarkably intact considering how long it’s been since it was inhabited.
Uxmal is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Kabah is not listed, but should be on the list of anyone who appreciates the ruins of our past cultures.
More photo prints from both sites are available at my Mexico Prints.
8
Jul
2009
Chichen Itza Prints
It’s been a couple of years since I visited Chichen Itza. At the time, I spent a week in Mérida, the capital of the Yucatan taking day trips out to see the sights, including possibly the most well known of the Maya ruins. Many Americans visiting Cancun will take a tour to see these ruins and learn about the Maya.
The topography and soil of the Yucatan causes the formation of cenotes, typically open pits where underground water is accessible. It’s not surprising that the ancient Maya built their cities around these cenotes, which they considered magical and gateways to the afterlife. Chichen Itza or, Chich’en Itzá in Maya, translates basically as ‘at the mouth of the well of the Itza.’ The Itza were a particiular group of the Maya. This is apparently not the first name of Chichen Itza but there’s a lack of consensus on what the first name was.
These cities, like our cities today, are not built at once, they are built, torn down, and built again, inhabited by successions of people with different tastes and beliefs over the centuries. Chichen Itza was at its peak from roughly 600 AD to 1,000 AD. It was sacked and the focus moved to Mayapan sometime between 1,000 and 1,200, but even by the time the Spanish arrived, there were still people living there and making pilgrimages to the centotes. So, when we look at these ruins, we’re looking at around 1,000 years of human habitation but primarily with the buildings of the last of its prosperous times.
Lost - Pyramids of Chichen Itza
This view is of El Castillo, the main pyramid at Chichen Itza. This temple to Kukulcan was built on top of an earlier temple to Chac Mool, the rain god. The earlier temple has been excavated and was once open to the public but no longer is. The later temple shows Toltec influences. In fact, Kukulcan is the Maya version of the Toltec god, Quetzalcoatl. There are stories of the arrival of a Toltec king around 987 who set up a new court at Chichen Itza. If true, it’s possible this explains the cultural influence. It’s hard to look at these ruins without thinking of the culture that flourished and vanished here so long ago. The craftsmanship is amazing.
Kukulcan Temple
This is a close up of the top of the pyramid. It has been restored by the Mexican Government in the 1920’s and 30’s and restoration activities continue. Still, we have not restored these temples to their original appearance. The buildings were not bare stone originally but were plastered and were likely painted colorfully. Even in their muted forms, these buildings still speak to us of a talented and creative people.
El Castillo Steps
These are the northern steps to El Castillo. There are 4 stairs, one on each side, each with 91 steps. If you were to add these four sets of stairs, they total 364. The final step, the floor level of the temple at the top makes a total of 365, the number of days in a year. There are many such astronomical connections to these temples. On the north side, there are two plumed serpents (Kukulcan) carved into both sides. On the spring and autumn equinox, the sun casts shadows that make the snakes appear to slither down the pyramid. I’m told the nightly light show recreates this view. Even today, this is an imposing edfice!
Chichen Itza is UNESCO World Heritage site.
There are more prints available from Chichen Itza and Mexico in my Mexico Prints
6
Jul
2009
Williamsburg, Virginia
I visited Williamsburg, Virginia, in 2006, the year before the 400th anniversary of Jamestown. I definitely do want to go back at some point. They were building a huge new museum at Jamestown that was to be opened in time for the anniversary. A lot of people forget, the pilgrims weren’t first. The first permanent English Settlement was at Jamestown, and a lot of colonial and revolutionary history is to be found in that stretch of land from Jamestown to Williamsburg and Yorktown.
Founded in 1607, by the early 1700’s the emphasis had shifted to Williamsburg, which had become the new colonial capital of Virginia. And Jamestown slowly vanished from the map, its exact location actually being lost for many years. Williamsburg eventually became something of a backwater too, but the small town including some colonial buildings survived into the 20th century. In the early 1900’s, a reverend, Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin became became Rector of the local Parish church, parts of which dated into the 18th century. He lead a successful effort to restore and preserve the church. He was transferred to upper New York state where he lived for a number of years before returning to Williamsburg in the 1920’s. Seeing the number of deteriorating colonial buildings and fearing that there would soon be nothing left of them, he began a movement to save the historic core of Williamsburg. He managed to get the interest and financial support of John D Rockefeller, JR. Much of the town was bought up and everything was restored to its colonial appearance. Buildings that were original were restored and other buildings that had been lost were rebuilt in what was believed to be their colonial appearance. Colonial Williamsburg became a large living history museum that attracts visitors by the droves each year.
To the untrained eye, Colonial Williamsburg is a remarkable recreation of Colonial life in America complete with performances of key events in the colonial period by actors, etc.
During my brief visit in 2006, I came away with several photos that are, to me, reflective of the timelessness of the place.
Williamsburg - Picket Fences
I could not find anything specific about this little home other than it’s part of the property of Benjamin Waller, onetime notable of Williamsburg. The actual home is adjacent to this. I’m not sure if this little building was a cottage or a shop or what, but I love the look of it. It is the epitome of Americana to me. This little house with it’s picket fence and little dormers would once have been the American dream, before people decided they wanted to live in McMansions that filled their tiny lots. I hope we may boomerang back to this dream. I’ve been looking at lot at small homes. If I ever buy somewhere permanent again, I’d love a little house like this, the once upon a time American dream.
Williamsburg Courthouse
The courthouse at Williamsburg is actually one of the surviving structures from the Colonial era. Completed in 1771, it was the courthouse for the community for over a century and a half before being restored and becoming part of the living history exhibit at Colonial Williamsburg. The Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War was announced here.
Old Grandeur - Governor's Palace
The Governor’s Palace for the Governor of Virginia during Colonial days was long gone when the current living history museum was established, but this was built on the original site and used the original plans, methods and traditional fired bricks to recreate what to most of us would appear to be a spot on re-creation of the original.
Little Pink Houses
When I first saw this little pink house on Waller Street in Williamsburg, I love how tiny it was and the color of it! So charming! It’s actually one of the original colonial houses in Williamsburg, rather than a reproduction. Apparently the first records of it are when it was purchased in 1778 by Isham Goddin, so it’s now known as the Isham Goddin Shop, even though it was sold by him only a few years later when he left Williamsburg.
There are more photos from Williamsburg which can be found in my Rural America and Americana prints.
10
May
2009
Atlanta Stroll – Woodruff Park to Woodruff Arts Center
My last week before putting my stuff in storage and going home for now, I wanted to take a stroll through the city, take some parting shots. I may end up back here. I may not. Who really knows, so it was also sort of a farewell. And I’ve been in Alpharetta so long now, that it always seemed like I had some reason not to burn gas getting into the city.
At any rate, the plan was there, but the weather just woudln’t cooperate. Every morning started out gray and only a few ended sunny. And each of the sunny ending ones, I had already planned something for the evening. Saturday, I finally decided just to wander on down. I hopped MARTA at Doraville and rolled down to Peachtree Center where my long walk began.
Atlanta Flatiron - History Surpassed
My first stop was Atlanta’s Flatiron. When I first started getting into photography and wanted to photograph some local sites, this was one of my destinations. I had heard of the famous Flatiron in NYC, but never knew Atlanta not only had a building on the same plan but an older one. Built in 1897, this now diminutive building is Atlanta’s second and oldest surviving skyscraper.
Suntrust Plaza
I’ve always liked this building, the piles of cubes, the whole geometry of it. It was completed in 1992 as One Peachtree Center, later being changed to Suntrust Plaza.
Fabulous Fox on Peachtree
No meander up Peachtree would be complete without a stop at the Fox. I still had the fisheye lens on the camera and decided to go with it and see what I could get having attacked this one before with my regular wide angle. I really like the feel and color of what resulted. And, as you can tell, I had a little bit of sky to work with at last! Gray skies are gonna clear up!
The High Museum
This part of the meander wrapped up at the High Museum. If I had been just one week earlier, I could have stopped in here for free as a Fulton County resident. I regret never having done that in 10 years of living here. If you’re a Fulton resident, by all means, surpass my example and drop in on the first Saturday of the month for some culture paid for by your tax dollars.
At this point, I hopped back on MARTA and wandered some of Buckhead as well – photos to come. This isn’t, by the way, everything from the first stroll. If you want to see more, be sure to check out my Urban album.
