MEXICO BY FEDERICO SORRENTINO
Yucatán has always been one of those places I wanted to visit. I remember an episode that happened some years ago: I was 19, I was working in a photography shop and I was in charge of developing and printing the customers’ film images. One day, among the countless prints, I saw some black and white portraits that a client had taken in Mexico: I was very impressed. Those images stuck in my mind as a reference for long time, always wondering if I would ever be able to make that trip too. 12 years passed before that day arrived.
The journey began in a rather adventurous way. Landed in the middle of the night, we immediately started driving towards the first destination, near Tulum... but in the middle of the jungle. We slept on a tree hut surrounded by nature and we woke up, the morning after, with a pink sunrise and birds singing.
Traveling south along the coast, breathtaking landscapes and sunsets marked the following stops of our trip, such as Mahahual, a few hours from the border with Belize, an oasis of peace close to a fishing village. We continued towards Bacalar Lagoon, also called the lake of the 7 colors. The crystal clear and bright water showed incredible shades of blue and green, but what left us breathless, while sailing the lagoon on a catamaran with a young local guide, was finding ourselves, all of a sudden, on a cenote: a deep, water-filled sinkhole in limestone, typical of the area, a sort of dark circular lake that seems a chasm into the center of the earth. To the ancient Maya, cenotes were significant, as they were considered sacred access points to the underworld.
Continuing the journey to the west coast of Yucatán, we entered the biosphere reserve of Calakmul, which runs along Guatemala. In this area, the ruins of one of the most powerful Maya cities and some of the highest and largest pyramids were discovered: climbing to the top of one of the pyramids, you can look out over the surrounding jungle, animated by birds, monkeys and jaguars. You can see some spots covered with vegetation and it is such an uncontaminated and enormous place that you feel like one of those explorers of the past.
Obviously in the most remote places we got a flat tire!
Incredibly, we managed to find help in the surrounding area: an unlikely place with a cardboard sign that said "vulcanizadora", where one man with rudimentary tools repaired the damage while another one helped us get the tires back to the car. In such places, smile and generosity are the basis of relationships between people.
Reaching the other coast on the Gulf of Mexico, we continued towards Campeche, a colonial city distinctive for its pastel colors, and then headed to Mérida where some friends would have hosted us: we were catapulted into the cultural center of Mexico, an exciting city characterized by the contagious energy of all its inhabitants.
We visited many other places, villages and landscapes and ended with a last stop in the north, in Isla Holbox. "Holbox" originally means "black hole", and it is thought that this name was given by the Maya because in this area the waters of the Caribbean Sea mix with those of the Gulf of Mexico forming a gloomy lagoon. Once landed on Isla Holbox, you realize that it is a paradise of wilderness, with a very rich fauna, soft white beaches and crystal clear waters. Although it is still uncrowded, tourism has been increasing in recent times, but without affecting its placid and relaxed atmosphere: its sandy streets, the absence of cars and its Caribbean buildings make it unique.
The culture and generosity of people, always smiling and ready to help you without asking for anything in return, was a very important aspect of our journey that greatly enriched me on a personal level and that I tried to tell through my shots.
"Traveling is walking towards the horizon, meeting the other, knowing, discovering and coming back richer than when the journey had begun"
