440 - 10th - Start the business

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 10th Mar'09

The doors had just opened to the ruins at Palneque and among the very first people to get in were these shopkeepers who owned small make-shift "tiendas" inside the complex. They put up their shops right besides the palace of the king which was actually a passage between the two main areas inside the campus. They had all kinds of things ranging from table covers to calendars and small show pieces all having some kind of "Mayan" look.

I was climbing down the ruins of the palace when I saw them getting ready for the day's business. I took this photo from the first level of the building in order to go unnoticed and get a "natural" shot.

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425 - 13th - Witnessing history

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 13th Feb'09

Palenque is one of the most fascinating archeological ruins I have ever visited. We reached the place before it opened and were one of the first people to enter the site as soon as the gates were set free. You could feel the energy the place possessed as soon as you stepped in. Not evening a single human being in front of you and just bare pyramids and open fields lying ahead, made you feel you have entered into a some other world. A world where the stones speak for themselves and the kings tell their stories through the glyphs, paintings and pyramids.

An experience which changed forever the way I looked at archeology and to be more specific - at the Mayas.

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409 - 28th - The tiny fungi

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 28th Jan'09

One person was really pissed off while I was busy clicking these tiny mushrooms - my guide to the ruins of Palenque.

We had hired a guide to let us know the story behind the stones at the archeological ruins of Palenque. After giving us the details of the pyramids he led us into the jungle to show some ruins which haven't been excavated yet. As we were spiraling through the narrow path in the undergrowth we passed under a log of a fallen tree. This bunch of tiny fungi was growing on that particular piece of wood. While the guide was cursing me for spending time on something which isn't even remotely related to Maya civilization, I was busy getting my shot.

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407 - 26th - Agua Azul

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 26th Jan'09

Agua Azul (Blue water) is a famous waterfall in the state of Chiapas, around 69 Kms from Palenque. This waterfall consists of many cataracts following one after another. The water is as blue as it looks in this picture & on many others posted before, and has a high mineral content. Where it falls on rocks or fallen trees it encases them in a thick shell-like coating of limestone.

The place offers a hour's trek up the hill to reach from where the water actually enters the area from a narrow crack in the mountain. The density of people inside and around the water decreases as you go up and it's clarity increases. It was probably one of the largest and most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen.

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406 - 25th - A family

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 25th Jan'09

I was walking through the downtown of San Cristobal back to where our car was parked when I saw this small family right in front of me. My friend had warned me earlier that the native people in this city were really wary of getting "clicked" and often protested violently if they see someone shooting them without prior permission.

Given these facts, I somehow took risk of taking some quick shots. I really loved the way the woman was dressed. The way her hair was tied and the black traditional skirt which she was wearing. Looks like a perfect family :)

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405 - 24th - Crystal clear

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 24th Dec'09

For a moment I did not realize that this particular log of wood was actually immersed in water. The way the shadows fell and practically no optical distortion due the water made me feel at the first glance as if it was lying on a sheet of gravel. Only the next moment when my eyes rested on it, I realized the presence of water.

No wonder people couldn't resist dicing into it and being there for hours.

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404 - 23rd - Beyond the fence

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 23rd Jan'09

It is really amazing how we often cease to think "beyond" and just stick your sight on things right in front. It happens often in life that we regret being short-sighted and not looking far enough.

Well, it is almost the same case with this image. At first instance it just looks like a simple wooden fence. But if you try and look "beyond", you will see a couple of women grazing some sheep in an open stretch of land.

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403 - 22nd - The angry turkey

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 22nd Jan'09

This is probably one of the most amazing behaviors of any bird I have ever seen. There was a group of turkeys having some ten females and one male bird. The male bird which usually looks different , had its tail and wings spread out and was making loud sounds every now and then. Initially I was not able to understand what is going on. But after observing the flock for some time, I realized that it actually was a way to express anger and he was driving the rest of the females back into the shelter. In a couple of minutes I could see all the birds starting running towards the house with this angry mail on their back.

As you can see in the picture, the bird at the front is heading in one direction with the male following it. Male chauvinism – yet another example.

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402 - 21st - Relaxing under the sun

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 21st Jan'09

I caught this couple in my camera just after they came out of the water and rested themselves on the shore. They were inside the water for quite some time, swimming around and playing with their friends. Once out, they just tried to catch some sunshine and relax.

I was sitting at a distance just observing the activities around me. I don't know if you have ever done it, but it is really an amazing experience to observe people and the things they do.

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401 - 20th - Thru the shade

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 20th Jan'09

We were climbing up the slope to see the place from where the water starts gushing in the waterfall of Agua Azul. It was a long way up; more or less a two kilometer trek. While on the way, I noticed this small place among the dense vegetation where the sunlight was falling on the flowing water after being filtered through the thick shade of the tress above. The sparkling water along with the rays of light coming down was a treat to the eyes.

I managed to make my way inside the place and took some shots. I wanted to go a bit further but the ground below was taking the form of a swamp. So I maintained a safe distance and tried to get the best I could.

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400 - 19th - Friendship

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 19th Jan'09

This group of friends was standing in the middle of nowhere, daring the strong current of water coming from the waterfall. Very few people dared to go that far and thus the place was more or less empty. I could hear them laugh, scream and shout in joy even against the loud noise of the falling water. Though I didn't go to the place, seeing them enjoying whole heartedly brought a smile on my face.

Friendship is really a gem of a relation. The joy which you get with your friends cannot be paralleled by any other feeling on this earth. Those loud laughters and uncontrolled humors which you get with your friends are almost impossible to be found anywhere else. This post is dedicated to all my good friends; with whom I have spent some of the most precious moments of my life.

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399 - 18th - Down the road

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 18th Jan'09

We were on our way to Ocosingo from Tuxtla when we passed by some green meadows. As it was only a two-lane highway, it was difficult to stop at our will & so I told my friend to pull up down the road whenever it was possible. At one point when a small lane branched out of the highway, we found a place to park the car. I got out and took some shots.

As I was heading back towards the car, I had a glance on that weathered road. I saw an apparently old looking woman walking down the path carrying some stuff in her hand. I had just a couple of moments to get down at the right level and take some photos of her before she would take the turn and vanish.

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398 - 17th - Copy shop

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 17th Jan'09

As you might have already observed, the most striking feature of the copy shop in the image is the stark contrast in colors. I was walking through the downtown of San Cristobal when I came across this shop. The bright colors painted on the walls were giving a much brighter contrast due to the early morning sun.

I had to wait at the place for more than fifteen minutes to get a frame free of any people or traffic running through the street.

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397 - 16th - The man & the tree

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 16th Jan'09

I am not sure whether it was all wood or all stone or a combination of stone and wood, but the whole sculpture looked almost homogeneous. It had such a uniformity in it's texture that you could easily say that it was carved out of a single piece (wood or stone, doesn't matter).

Probably he was the founder of "zoomat", the ecological reserve at Tuxtla. I found him standing against a stump at the entrance of the place, near the ticket counter. It was a long queue, and I fell back on my favorite thing to kill some time - my camera.

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396 - 15th - Bugging the Bug

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 15th Jan'09

We were standing at one of the viewpoints for the Canyon del Sumidero and enjoying the beautiful scenary when something struck my head. Thinking of it as a dry leaf fallen from the tree above my head, I casually brushed it off with my hand. When it fell in front of me, I realized it was a red little bug. As I had my camera in hand, I thought it would be a nice close up shot of the insect.

Though I was patient enough to wait for it to face towards the camera to give a nice shot, I think it was not the same for the insect. I could have shot just two photos, when it suddenly spread it's tiny wings and flew away back from where it came :)

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395 - 14th - Early morning business

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 14th Jan'09

It was 7 in the morning when we arrived to San Cristobal after a hour's drive from Tuxtla. the city was covered in dense fog and even a thick leather jacket was not able to keep away the chilly wind. We left our hotel around 6 in the morning & hence had a plan to take breakfast in San Cristobal. After scanning the downtown for half an hour we could find only a single restaurant open at that hour. We parked our car in an empty parking slot and started walking towards the restaurant.

On the way, we saw these hawkers selling Tamales. Given the almost zero temperature, I could not resist buying one; even though my friends were not interested. While I was sitting & enjoying my steamy hot breakfast, I took this photo of the place. Though it didn't boast of high end customers, it was doing quite a good business.

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P.S Click on the image and observe the various subjects - it is really interesting :)

394 - 13th - The colored reptile

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 13th Jan'09

I have posted another image of this reptile some time back on my blog. It was having some shades of black and blue in that one. This time it has returned to the blog in a more colorful way. If you see carefully, you can find at least four distinct colors.

It is amazing how nature has put so many colors into it's creations in many different forms. Though humans were given only some limited shades of white, black and brown, other animals seem to enjoy the colored extravagance.

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393 - 12th - Upside down

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 12th Jan'09

When I first saw this tree at the "Parque Madero" in Tutxtla, my first instinct was to zoom in and focus on the small "bushed" branches laterally to get one in focus and rest in the background. But that angle seemed to be quite an obvious one. So I decided to get underneath the tree and try to angle upwards.

The bright shining sun put a lot of extra brightness in the on the right side of the frame, but I am happy with the overall composition :)

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392 - 11th - The striped tortugas

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 11th Jan'09

I have seen turtles at many places but everywhere they are either Grey colored or have some shade of Brown. Yellow turtles with stripes of blue on top were really a pleasant surprise. This image is from the ecological reserve "Zoomat" from Tuxtla, Chiapas.

I am not sure if it was the abundance of these animals in southern Mexico, but the Zoo was full of them. At every second pool you could find them swimming deep in the water or just lazing around on rocks to catch some sunshine.

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391 - 10th - Zipping away

Originally clicked and uploaded by - Pratosh Dwivedi - 10th Jan'09

Another one from the canyon :). The trip back to the base after the tour of the canyon is a fast and quick one. One the way up, the boats are slow and the guide explains you about everything on the way. But once done, he just zips the boat through the canyon back to the shores. At any given time you can see around three to four boats in some fifty square meters of area, running in either direction.

This particular image is of a boat which was in front of mine and was at much higher speed than ours. The waves which the other boats generate used to create some really anxious moments for us, as our boat used to start dancing on the high waves. It was really tough to get a good shot among that turbulence. Somehow I managed to get this one.

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