Going through much more old stuff still, I came across a box of contact sheets with negatives, from my six month long sabbatical in Mexico when I left the music business. It was much more safe to travel in Mexico back then, most especially as a "rich" American.
Some shots are amazing. Sunsets, sunrises, burros, mountains, streams, my guide's kids and just people shots of third world villages beaming with super awesome people, jumping at the gift of their days, from Durango to Cabo. I was asked over and over how far south I had to go to get to Durango, Mexico. Dummies! I told them, not far, I drove west from my parents' south Texas home.
Over a hundred rolls of film I took with me, which I just processed to make contact sheets with no prints made. Cheaper that way and more professional in many ways. I shot a lot and I ran out of film just after I reached Cabo San Lucas, where I stayed for a while. Not so much touristy shit going there back then. Once we reached Matzatlan we boarded a "ferry" to take us the miles across the gulf to El Sur De California peninsula.
Wasn't much of a ferry, but what a ride! Fishing the whole way. Loaded with fresh sea bass upon arrival. All the eats were set for a week.
Fished for weeks off the, then vacant, shores near Cabo. I don't think Cabo Wabo existed, yet or I would have gone looking for Sammy himself. We both knew Joe at that time. That might have made for an introduction at least.
I no longer own printing and processing equipment, so getting a digi image will require me to get my Nikon bellows duplicating system back into operation. Can do, but until I am ready to make me a few wall hangers of a few of the best, I'll just have to keep that project in the "To Do" category.
It was still life on the road, but there were no roads. Not in a normal sense of the word. We walked and sometimes road a burro. I had bought three for the trip and the guide had two of his own. Crossing the mountains was incredible and yes I ate lizards and snakes, cooked them first, unlike my guide's kids often did with the little ones too small for the fire. An occsional prairie chicken, which my guide took with just a sling. That man ciould work a "David Style" sling like I had never seen before.
Guns were not allowed, but he did not need one for feeding his crew.
I had actually bought a building in Durango to store my car when the roads got to be too rough for the fucking Crown Victoria LTD I owned. When we returned from our two month long "hike" I wanted to just give the family who had guided me all that shit. But they would not take the burros. Burros were too valuable.
The building, no problem, they would take it. Buildings come and go, but burros can help you make a living. They would not allow me to just give them the animals. I ended up selling all three burros for what I had paid for one. It was still too much for this extended family of about twenty five, including at least four generations to afford.
But word spread around town and people came from all over to give them a couple of pesos to help.
I went down there with eight thousand dollars in my pocket, thinking it would be a nice vacation. I spent three times the amount of time I had originally planned, had a lifetime of fun, unwound my stove up soul, bought a building, three burros, ate and boarded myself for six months, and came home with over four thousand dollars still.
Travel in the wilds of Mexico was cheap back then.
I had decided to return home and make a living with my camera. Soul searching well underway. And it worked; I made a decent living with my cameras.
One big box I had found last month had the left overs of a case of page protectors I had bought once. I've spent the last hour putting these contact prints into proper archive protectors. That will make going back through later a lot easier and keep them healthy for years to come.
So much memory lane shit going on around here. All I'm really trying to do is "finish" moving into this new home.
