A quick update: I am going to the Mayan Riviera, currently the Canada Government travel advisory for that area of Mexico is to ‘exercise high degree of caution’, which is alarming, but okay, at least Tropical Storm Nate fizzled and there is no other storm within the six days we plan to stay there.
The biggest anxiety inducing obstacle, for some reason, has been deciding on which camera to take. With no convenient (ie. light, portable, affordable) wide DX lense, I wanted to take a point and shoot camera, however, we have lost the battery charger for our Canon Powershot SD850 IS, and I lent my Panasonic Lumix FX30 to my mom. A charger, an official Canon charger that is, ostensibly costs 80 bucks which can buy you a much improved replacement camera. With that thinking, a day long grueling internet research into the best available point and shoot commenced and I started drooling over these two cameras in particular: the Olympus XZ-1 and Panasonic Lumix LX5. The Olympus camera I had read about recently on Advanced Photographer (Photography?) magazine, and the LX5′s predecessors had rave reviews and is used by cool photobloggers such as topleftpixel. After much grief, desire and discussion with Mel over MSN, I decided that I needed to use my Nikon D3000 more, and I couldn’t really afford the price of a professional point and shoot anyway. (What does afford mean anyway? One can “afford” anything!)
I decided to use my starter kit lense, Nikkor 18-55mm, 3.5-4.8, as my main go-to travel lense. It is even high recommended by bythom as a “rational lense” to take. Knowing this will likely be a relaxing vacation in an all inclusive hotel, I should take it easy with the photos.
Also, here are the books I’m bringing. I realized I have no real Mexican authors. Roberto Bolano is Chilean, Borges is Argentinian, and even Mario Vargas Llosa is Peruvian.
Nazi Literature in the Americas, Roberto Bolano.
Cancun, Cozumel and the Yucatan, The Lonely Planet
Playa de Carmen, Tulum and the Riveria Maya, Joshua Eden Hinsdale (Great Destinations Series)
I’m still not too clear where exactly I’ll be staying (Aventura Spa Palace is somewhere south of Playa de Carmen). I’ll be away from Battle.net for six days, so my quest to Diamond as Zerg will be have to resume once I get back. GG everyone. Also: all my photos are uploaded on my photoblog http://marginaliac.tumblr.com.
PS. Off the top of my head, Conor Obert’s self-titled solo album seems like a great playlist for this trip. Maybe even some “Machu Picchu” by The Strokes.