The last camera that placed while in Mexico was Camera #181, which was placed in the Zocalo de Puebla, in Puebla, Mexico. The Zocalo is basically the central square, downtown, in front of the main church. It was a Friday evening, and the place was hopping with all sorts of people. The hardest part was trying to find a spot that wasn’t too crazily busy so that people wouldn’t see me placing the camera, but would see the package and go pick it up.

I’m hoping that it worked!

So, I’ve been really bad at updating the blog with all of the new things that have been happening, but, this post will be the beginning of fixing that. I know, I’ve been bad, please forgive me!

While I was in Mexico, I went to Playa del Carmen, a resorty beach city, near Cancun, but smaller. The day before leaving, I realized that I had yet to place a camera in the city I spent a week in… whoops!

The busiest area, with the most foot traffic, and hopefully the most success of getting someone to pick up the camera and do something with it, is Avenida 5, the main tourist drag. There a bunch of benches along the avenida, so, I walked up and down, trying to find the right one. It had to be in an area with enough people walking by that someone would notice it, and, also not already occupied. I finally resorted on placing Camera #179 on a bench near Calle 6 Sur.

Well, I’ve been on my vacation in Mexico for almost two weeks now, and I’ve only placed one camera! I decided to get the letter translated into Spanish to, hopefully, help the success rate. And, I also had some internet issues, which caused some additional delays. But, on Wednesday, I finally got a chance to place one.

Camera #178 was placed in Cancun, on a bench in the Plaza La Isla – a large outdoor mall, on the ocean with its own Aquarium, complete with dolphin shows.

My plan is to place another 4 cameras while I’m here. Hopefully that means that I’ll get at least one of those back.

Valerie Thai & Roger Allen went to Vietnam on vacation last month, and they did the Project a big favour by taking Camera #30 – an old camera that hadn’t been placed yet! They left it at the Virgin Mary statue in front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Here’s to hoping that this one makes it’s way back!

Back in October, I placed Camera #129 in the Foot Passenger Lounge for the Gabriola Island Ferry in Nanaimo, BC. I had started to lose hope that it would come back, but, lo and behold, a few days ago, it did!

There are quite a bit of sailing shots – it looks like the camera sailed to Vancouver, and made it’s way, with a chicken, to the chopping block.

I’m heading off to Mexico for a holiday in a couple of days, but don’t worry – I’ll be taking some cameras along with me. And, I’ll have some assistance in translating the letter into Spanish. So, hopefully, I’ll get at least one camera back from Mexico. If nothing else, I’ll at least be hitting another country with The Anonymous Photo Project!

Happy Holidays everyone!

A couple of updates for you. On December 26 [Boxing Day here in Canada], Emmi Jormalainen left Camera #125 where Santa lives! She left the camera Under the Christmas tree on Santa Claus Village, in Rovaniemi, Finland, in the Arctic Circle. According to Wikipedia, the Santa Claus Village is claimed to be where Santa lives, and Rovaniemi is home to the world’s most northerly McDonald’s.

According to Google Maps, the Santa Claus Village is further north than McDonald’s, which means that the camera was placed further North than any McDonald’s.  In your face Micky D’s!

Hopefully, someone will find the camera under the tree and make sure it makes it’s way back! Camera #85, was placed at the entrance to Santa House in North Pole, Alaska in September of 2007, but never made it back. I have a feeling that Santa is hoarding cameras from The Project, and, obviously houses!

And, unrelatedly, recently, Barbie Hauzinger came across The Anonymous Photo Project and has decided to Help Spread the Project. Thanks Barbie!

On Monday, Shaw TV interviewed me about The Anonymous Photo Project. Since it was taped and not live I wasn’t as nervous as last time [Breakfast Television], but still a little bit. It seemed to go well, and hopefully they can edit out all my stuttering and stammering and make me look halfway presentable.

As part of the piece, I put together a package – I even prettied it up a bit by adding a tag to hopefully entice people – and placed it. I put Camera #130 on a chair outside of Chapter’s on Granville & Broadway. It’s been kinda cold here in Vancouver, and it even snowed, so people weren’t lingering around for too long, but, it did eventually get noticed and picked up. I’ll be waiting in anticipation at my mailbox waiting for a Christmas present!

I’m not sure exactly when it will air. I think it will be on January 9 – definitely in the new year. I’ll keep you posted as to when it will happen.

A little while ago, I went over to Gabriola Island to visit family. I got to the ferry terminal in downtown Nanaimo with plenty of time to spare until the next ferry. Enough time for no one to be in the foot passenger lounge. This time, I decided to be a lot more obvious in my placement of the package. In the foot passenger lounge, there’s a bulletin board where people post local events, services, and things for sale, like firewood. I posted Camera #129 right on the board so that no one would miss it. The same thing was done with Camera #96, but to no effect. Hopefully, it works this time.

This weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada, and Valerie Thai and Roger Allen went to Surrey to eat a big ole meal. While there, they decided to place Camera #119:

“…so we parked the car around the corner, placed the camera (no one saw us at all!), and then when we drove past the bus stop ….it was gone!!!… wow…”

On September 24, Valerie Thai and Roger Allen were in Beverly Hill, and their intention was to leave a camera on Rodeo Drive, but all of the high-end stores have security guards outside their entrances. So, instead, they placed Camera #118 on a newspaper dispensing box at Beverly Drive & Dayton Way, which is right around the corner.

Maybe we’ll get a peak into the lives of the rich and famous…