Wake Owl's New EP, Wild Country

This EP by Wake Owl just came out today and it's been on repeat a few times around here. The title track and album opener, Wild Country is the front runner after the first few listens.

Born and raised in California, Colyn Cameron of Wake Owl now calls Vancouver and Portland home. It's good to think that much of these songs could have been written while experiencing the mix of city and wilderness in British Columbia, our old home.

Wild Country EP, by Wake Owl
“With this EP I was really focused on just creating recordings I could be proud of and felt connected to as a group of songs. I wanted to capture and represent, in all its instrumentation and arrangement, what those songs mean to me.”

It looks like, at least for now, the whole album is available to stream off of SoundCloud. If you don't already subscribe to a service like Rdio (or Songza, GrooveShark, Spotify), do it. Rdio is just about the best thing to music discovery and listening that has happened in ages.

If you're on Rdio, come find me.

The Debut EP "Wild Country" Available Now! Purchase On: iTunes: smarturl.it/wakeowlwildcountry Amazon: http://smarturl.it/wildcountryamazon

Check out Wake Owl's Facebook page, or learn a bit more about them with their bio on Vagrant's site.

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Just Some Photos: Tulum, a Beach and Town

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This weekend was a nice and slow pace. One day, a walk about Playa del Carmen to get some errands done. It was capped off by a Sunday trip to Tulum for food on the beach and drinks up the Sunset Lounge at Mateo's. At sunset and after happy hour had done its work, we decided the best course of action was to stay the night and visit our friends at Hartwood.

Waking up in Tulum, especially in a Jameson daze, unsure where you are for a moment, makes for a nice surprise in the morning. In Tulum, you wake up a few feet from the sand and sea. We walked the beach, grabbed coffee and some fruit on a beach patio then headed back home to end the stretched out weekend on a Monday morning.

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On the Road in Mexico with Herschel Supply Co.

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Herschel Supply Co. backpacks are pretty much perfect for the beach.

Our pals over at Herschel Supply Co. are good folks. They stocked us up with some bags, which we use for anything from packing books and bottles for a beach day to everything we need for road trips to the south.

This red canvas Little America bag is our most used and retails for about $140. That price seems fair considering the thing is going to go along with you on all your adventures for the next few years. Treat yourself!

You can see it's a pretty simple, classic design, which is what you want to aim for in your go-to bag. The thing will stand the test of time in style and durability. It feels nice and sturdy, has a deep main pocket with plenty of room for rum, limes, a few books, accessories, camera and whatever else you're bringing around with you. It also comes with a padded laptop sleeve so you can still check Facebook from the beach.

Since this bag can fit lots, they've outfitted it with padded straps for those long walks on the beach you always talk so much about.

Most recently we loaded up our bags and hit up Mahahual. Tomorrow? Tulum! Check out some photos below.

 
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The Streets of San Miguel de Allende & Guanajuato, Mexico

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Taryn Baxter is an old friend who I know originally from Whineo's, my most cherished and long since shuttered bar in Vancouver. Taryn is a Vancouver based photographer whose focus is primarily wedding and engagement shoots, although as you scroll through this post you'll see that she's not limited to either. Diversify!

Travel Photography... With Real Film?

Last fall, Taryn grabbed a flight from Vancouver to San Miguel de Allende and hit the streets with her Hasselblad. Below are images from what came of it, and what she had to say.

“My favourite way to explore a new place is to walk the streets alone with my camera. Because I shoot film on a completely manual camera, I’m forced to slow down and really observe what’s going on around me. I believe it’s an essential part of street photography, as it opens your eyes to the beauty and intricacies of where you are and the people who live there.”

Click any image to enlarge and use your left/right arrow keys to navigate.

“San Miguel is a quaint but vibrant town with a thriving arts community. The colours are magnificent and the people are some of the friendliest I’ve met. It’s been said that San Miguel is the most beautiful town in Mexico, and I wouldn’t disagree.”
“A two hour car ride away is Guanajuato, an old silver mining town in a picturesque valley. Between the cobblestone alleyways, museums, markets and cafes, it feels distinctly European, yet the town is full of Mexican culture.”

If you're thinking of traveling to Mexico and would prefer cobblestone streets and cafés over the usual choice of beaches and bars, you should know that as well as looking beautiful, San Miguel de Allende and its surrounding area is one of the safest and friendliest in the country.

 

Taryn shot all of these beauties on her Hasselblad 500cm with Portra 160 and 400 film. You should check out Taryn Baxter's photography website and then follow her on Facebook to add some colour and life to your newsfeed.

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Take Me Back to Bacalar

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Bacalar Lagoon, Costa Maya in Mexico

Powering down after a work week switches back and forth from doing nothing but laying around having drinks in our pool to getting out the door and heading somewhere. Usually south. South brings finer beaches, beautiful landscapes, smaller towns and less humans. North brings tourism, mega resorts and house music.

Go South by Southwest

About three and a half hours south southwest from Playa del Carmen is a sleepy little lagoon town called Bacalar. We made it in two and a half. A German was behind the wheel and turned the Federal 307 into the Autobahn. He is a good man and I appreciated his enthusiasm to get the commute over with. The girls slept in the back, unaware of pace.

Now in Bacalar, we grabbed a quick lunch in the small town square, had a few beers and jumped on a boat. It was an independently owned charter, pitched to us by the young Romanian proprietor, Mihail. At first we considered he might just be The Tallest Man on Earth in hiding.

Mihail does all of the map and poster artwork for their little pirate operation, Piratas Bacalar. He has a sort of charm and a salesmanship we had to say yes to. That, and your other option for getting on the water in Bacalar is throwing on a neon life vest and choking on fumes from the little sardine boats tour groups pack visitors into. Instead, find the Piratas and take a private sailing trip on a daysailer with shark teeth painted on the bow. It just makes sense.

The sail lasts six hours from daylight through sunset and into the dark. It follows the routes in the image below with a guided history of the pirate and Spanish raids in the region.

At the time of writing this there are four different price points:

  • 2 Passengers: $1200 pesos
  • 3 Passengers: $1600 pesos
  • 4 Passengers: $1800 pesos
  • 6 Passengers: $2200 pesos

There were four of us, so it worked out to $1800 pesos ($140usd) for the full six hour private tour. The sail comes with fresh fruit and a dinner plate of meat, veggies and rice for all. When you run it down, you're talking about $75 pesos ($6usd) an hour, per person. Who says no to a $6/hr private sailing trip? Not you, that's for damned sure!

Pack enough beer, rum and wine for the whole trip. If you've been to Mexico or live in the area, you know that beer at the corner store is only about $0.50usd a can while a 750ml bottle of rum can be $10-12usd. Liquor here is practically free.

You'll start with beer in the sun, and switch to wine or rum as the sun sets with the boat anchored in the crystal clear shallows of the lagoon. El Capitan sails in right next to a tiny homebase island for what seems like every species of bird on the planet. They fly with their wings almost skimming the lagoon on their way around the boat to the island, sun setting in the background.

We got back to land, had some beers and cigars on our patio at Amigos Hotel until it was time to pass out. Rooms at Amigos run at about $700 pesos ($50usd). Below is a photo of our patio during the day, before sailing. The top photo in this post is the pier at Amigos Hotel. At a glance through the images on their site, Amigos may not appear to be much, but that's the town. A place less concerned with luxury property rentals and more focused on relaxing in a relatively untouched region of the Costa Maya, Mexico.

Bacalar is a quaint place of beauty, pot holes, dirt roads, street dogs, independently owned restaurants and hotels, all sitting on the Lagoon of Seven Colours. The next morning we left for Mahahual and already missed Bacalar. We'll be back soon, little town.

Follow more of this kinda stuff on Instagram if you'd like.