ill Fated

An auction at Spanish Lookout, Cayo. Last year, I fussed about missing out on an important photo shoot with some photographer friends. I had another opportunity earlier this year with the same people – John Banman and pro photographer Tony Rath, a man who needs no introduction around here. The shoot took place some time in March at Spanish Lookout, a Mennonite community in western Belize.

This time around, I had the opportunity to travel alongside an old high school friend, Roberto Leal, who came along taking notes of the journey.

John took us to an auction around 9am. It didn’t take me five minutes to realize that they weren’t going to have fancy paintings or artifacts at this auction; there was more junk than anything else. I even saw a bucket of burnt oil being sold for a dollar. Apparently, the hosts were leaving the country and intended to auction everything including all their rubbish (talk about everything must go). The auctioneer did speak about 5 times faster than I could listen which was enough to say that there was something interesting at this place. This was my first time at an auction. The only memorabilia I brought back was a bunch of pictures I took.

Mennonite men pondering the next bid. View the album here.

After the auction we had breakfast and moved on to what was supposed to be the most exciting part of our trip – an aerial shoot! The plane could only hold four so we volunteered Leal to stay at the auction site.

Before I go on, let me tell you what not to expect from the following paragraph. Don’t expect me to be talking about how beautiful things looked from sky view, nor how great the occasion was. Don’t even think I got good shots because I didn’t.

The only thing I could recall occurred about a half an hour in flight when I summoned my little brown paper bag which was enclosed in a zip lock bag (clever!) given to us by the pilot before lift off. The rest is up to your imagination. So much for a day of great shooting. If it’s not the flu, it’s nausea. What next?