Waterfalls and pyramids. Just another week in Chiapas.

On Monday our location was Agua Azul. I will let the pictures do the talking.

On Tuesday morning we showed up early at the pyramids. Hot humid and just gorgeous! These big ones are in close vicinity to the parking lot and we rolled our camera cart right in. The Mayans must have been in sick shape climbing these things all the time. 

Shooting schedule had to change because of harsh sunlight and in the jungle we went. And further in. And further in. Cursing and sweating and trekking treacherous steep stairs with heavy camera gear. Once in place after making some noise (I have to make a little noise every once in a while, about how if I knew what I was about to get myself into I wouldn't have gotten out of bed in the morning) But a little growling and a few bottles of water later I started looking around. Finding myself in a magical spot!

Stefania is my 2nd AC. She's like totally awesome!

Ivanhoe is our keygrip. Apparently Ivanhoe is a pretty extravagant name even in Spanish. Here he is dressed as a Mayan God. To give us luck? We can use every bit of luck we can get our hands on.

Because on Wednesday morning we woke up at 5am to insane rain. If you haven't seen Lost in La Mancha see it - it's a great documentary and it's the only way I can describe our potential situation, had we decided to shoot. 

OH! So there is a reason they call it the rain forest. Hm...

But Karen and Paul, our main characters are in Chiapas on a sunny vacation so it wouldn't make much sense to film in the rain. So here is our little crew huddled under pop up tents waiting for the downpour to stop.

It gave me some time to take some photos. This place is so magical and mystical anyway and with the mist and rain even more so.

Brave Japanese tourist puts his umbrella down TO GET THE SHOT!

The multicolored turista poncho cult is coming out of the darkness to see the pyramids.

We waited a few hours for the rain to stop and when it didn't we got in our vans and started our journey to San Cristóbal de Las Casas. We will have to come back at the end of the shoot to pick up some scenes by the ruins. 

But for now adios Palenque!

The regular route is the windy purple one and takes about 5 hours because of TOPES (speed bumps) and curves. But due to rain we had to take the red route which took about 6 or 7. There was much to see and no complaints. And once my pants dried it was even quite comfortable.

We started shooting on Thursday at the Museum of Amber. 

Sebastian our DP and Eva our director setting a frame.

On Friday we shot in the center of San Cristobal.

Grips. A very universal breed. James said it himself. All over the world grips are leaning against C stands looking bored. This is Manuel, Ivanhoe and "Oso" and they're great!

Emilio is our soundmixer.

OH street pup. How do I not take thee home with me?

Our Xolo superstar!

We have a 2 day weekend to roam around San Cristobal and shop and eat great food and learn about Zapatistas! And tonight we are all going to a show with one of the members from Mano Negra. On Monday we head to the Cañon De Sumidero to shoot. There's crocodiles there!

1 WEEK DOWN!

We have finished week one here in Palenque. We drove 10 hours from Mexico City and saw amazing nature on the way. The ride felt much shorter and it gave me a chance to get to know some of the people I am going to be working with for the next month. 

The movie is called Los Ojos Azul and is about a young New York couple who travel to Chiapas to follow in the guy's anthropology grandfather's footsteps. 

When I first read the script I realized that we would be visiting some amazing places, Karen and Zach go to the ruins and they go to the market in San Cristobal so that means we do too! Certainly can't shoot Queens for Palenque. So sign me up! 

Palenque street.

I share a room at the Hotel Maya Tulipanes with the lovely Marietta, who is also down from New York to shoot stills and behind the scenes. This is the view from our balcony. Mmmmmm... I like it a little bit down here.

We are shooting the first part here in Palenque, a town known for its Mayan heritage mostly in the form of ruins. Our location the first week was a beautiful eco hotel called the Chan Kah. 

Grip staging in paradise. Learning that film making is absolutely universal. We pretty much do it the same way all over.

The RED camera is not a fan (no pun intended) of tropical heat and needed a little extra cooling off before she could perform again.

When I need a little cooling off down here I just order a Michelada.

This is one of our principals. The sweetest little girl! A Mexican hairless Xolo dog. I'm a little in love.

We wrapped week one around 6 am saturday morning. Just in time for the Saraguatos to begin their morning racket. They're howler monkeys and they are all over around here.

Days off are like mini VK's around here and saturday was sleep sleep sleep. Mosy down to the pool for some laps. Drag my tired ass to the super market to pick up some of these lovelies...

Hello old friend.

And lolligag back to the pool for some quality time with my new friends. About 30 percent of the crew speak English. My 2nd is fluent and so is most of production. The rest I have 3 word relationships with. Por favors and gracias gets you a long way. But I'm trying my damndest to learn more.  I'm making a list of useful words for set communication. Up, down, left, right, before, after, more, less and numbers so I can call for lenses and other things... But just like when James and I drove the Baja peninsula a few years ago with Ebba, who kept insisting on breaking down, I ended up learning a lot of car Spanish, this time I'm learning set Spanish, words I'll never use again, Pisarra for instance - is the slate, or clapper. Disco is our hard drive and tarjetas are our flash cards. Ruben, our 3rd camera, is a jolly man and he knows very little English so we are parrotting each other trying to learn so we can make life easier on set. 

Sunday was set aside for our nature hike. 10 minutes outside of Palenque are the ruins but also pretty dense rain forest. A jungle is awesome enough on its own but here whenever you look down you realized that you are stepping on ruins. When Mayans ruled here there was no jungle but a thriving city!

Our fearless guide Victor knew everything about what plants produce color pigment that the Mayans painted with, to what leaves make a good hang over tea, to "shits from animals" to which vines make the best swings. Diabetes isn't gonna stop this guy from hiking the jungle every week. Go Victor!

Balsa tree

Smoke on the water

DP Sebastian is the Bushmaster. Named from a poisonous snake Victor told us about. "In 1 hour the peoples is dead."

Kajsa makes concrete bird baths from molds of rhubarb leaves. These would make some killer baths, fit for Emus!

Howler monkey. As close as we got unfortunately, but we heard them alright!

Mayan tomb!

This jungle was full of Indiana Jones stuff! 

One last snap of Victor!

Today we are off to shoot at Agua Azul! Yes we are going to work but no one can stop me jumping in as well!