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Nothing better than to escape the Belgian winter. This year, Tulum, Mexico was our chosen destination. I was a bit worried that the 11+ hour flight could be too much for such a small person, but thanks to the gate-personnel and cabin crew of Lufthansa we got both ways the best possible seats, which made a huge difference. A “grand merci” to the very friendly French couple that changed seats with us, so we could use the baby bed. We arrived late evening at Cancun airport and after collecting our luggage, a pre-ordered taxi service drove us the 2 hours to Tulum, where we arrived just short of midnight. After almost 20 hours travelling we were asleep instantly once we moved into “our tent”. We woke up in paradise – a perfect place to relax and enjoy. It is pretty remote, very laid back, with a beautiful beach, amazing colours, and a jungle of palm trees.

On the way to breakfast we passed the beach and every morning we were greeted with a different light – and almost everyday we chose to first take some pictures and then go to breakfast. I took the Mamiya RZ 67 (Portra 160/400 and TMAX 400) as my main camera. I hesitated because of the weight and bulkiness, but did not regret it at all. However, the hotel and some sight-seeing places have a policy that you can take pictures with a small camera, but not with professional equipment. Hotel staff approached me – apparently the Mamiya looks too professional, and asked me not to photograph within the hotel. Luckily I had the Hexar AF as my second camera, and that looks like a cheap point and shoot (but performs very well). I did not really understand the policy as some phones have nowadays more resolution than much bigger cameras, but ok… the other thing that I found really annoying are places and restaurants that do not serve you if you are with a child. In a fair world they would kick out people that have a problem with children, and not people with children. I have seen that in Portugal before and I was shocked that something like that is possible. Luckily, the people in our hotel were wonderful and very helpful in so many things.

For the rest, I hope the pictures speak for themselves!

We returned just before Christmas and left almost immediately again to Hamburg to celebrate with my family. I only shot one roll of film, it was too dark and grey most of the times. These were with the Pentax 645N (Portra 400) that replaced my Contax – and I am very happy with it! All colour images were processed by Carmencita Film Lab.

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