Brandon University

After dropping Ping at work, I made a detour to B.U campus with my easel. It was so quiet on the campus that I could hardly see any sign of human activities except a few of the crew working on plants and group of people having their wedding pictures taken in front of the original building by a professional photographer. Standing here looking at the BU landmark building I could not help but thinking how this university had totally changed the course of my personal life, and how a personal decision made incidentally 18 years ago could have a such an impact on myself and the rest of my family! and on a broader scale, how what happened almost exactly twenty years to the day in Beijing , China in May 1989 had so much changed the course of late 20 century history as well as the lives of thousands upon thousands of Chinese students like me. As I was painting this view,  I found myself sinking deeper and deeper in thought tracing back the road I had followed which led me to Brandon, Canada where I would soon mark my 18Th anniversary! 

Soaring into the sky - from our trip to Mexico

I can not leave this beautiful coast without showcasing the ubiquitous dancing palm trees that dotted the coast forming a dense dark green wall of defence against the elemental ocean.

Another view from the resort beach - from our trip to Mexico

This will be my last day here I can spend painting all day since there are only two days left and I have carried only ten pieces of canvas for this trip. Tomorrow we will travel to the center of the Yucatan Peninsula to a place called Chichen Itza, the center of Mayan civilization. We will join a tour group which makes it impossible for me to do any paintings there. Therefore, I will finish the remaining four paintings for today. We walked back to the resort beach to find the sea unsually quiet and calm today without crushing waves. This was the first time I could set up the ease painting without battling the strom wind. I painted another view with the small Mayan ruin from a diffenet point of view.

Another view from Tulum - from our trip to Mexico

I painted another view of the rocky coast. This time I painted looking up at the view insead of looking down. It was getting really hot and humid towards the noon hours, and it was hard to carry two wet paintings all the way home, and incidentally we found ourselves lost by walking down a worng path which leads us further away from the town.

A view from the coast of Tulum - from our trip to Mexico

Guarding the coast like a sentinel are a few Mayan ruins standing there for over thousand years since time immemorial. We travelled to Tulum via local mini bus a very convenient way to reach different places of interest along the coast. I walked with my easel among the throng of tourists and found myself enjoying this bird eyed view of this Mayan ruin on a soaring steep rocky coast. caressed by waves upon waves from the azure expanse of the Caribbean sea

Beach with a Mayan ruin - from our trip to Mexico

Right on the beach of the resort you can find a small Mayan ruin on the rocks. Battling strong gust of wind and braving the hot and glaring sunlight beating down on my back, I finished another painting for the day. Right behind me are rows upon rows of tourists lying there on the beach sunbathing themselves with their eyes half closed with lots of bikini clad ladies and with some of them going topless!