Capturing The Color of Travel

Joya of Be A Travel Bee kindly nominated me for Capture The Colour contest put on by Travel Supermarket. It’s a travel photography contest asking bloggers to post five travel photos according to the colors blue, green, yellow, white, and red. Judges will select the best entries to win the grand cash prize and a new iPad. If you want to find out more about the contest or enter yourself, you can read all about the details on the Travel Supermarket Capture the Colour contest page. Here are my travels as seen through shades of blue, green, yellow, white and red.

Blue

The sweetest town in Mexico may be Juluchuca. The small settlement is known for producing eye-popping colored coconut candy. I step into what appears to be a shack on the side of the road to see the process of coloring, making and perfecting these candies. The “factory” called Dulces de Coco, Cocolores is bombarded with color more commonly found in packages of highlighters. The walls of the coconut candy factory adorn in a bright shade of sky blue. The family works without pause in order to produce as much of these sweet treats as their hands will allow.  A woman assembles the candy into plastic jars for selling with a little heavenly support looking on. I wonder why they selected blue for the interior of this humble factory. The backdrop for producing bright green, white, yellow and pink candy must fit into the scene. With Jesus and Mary looking on, the blue creates an indoor sky, a heaven for the creation sweet candy. 

Green

A man mows an empty patch of land nearby as I stare at a hurricane. It might not be a hurricane in the present scene, but Hurricane Katrina is still here. I am wandering through the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a neighborhood hit the hardest by Katrina. This home stands abandoned, with a roof flatten by the storm. Surrounding it is a sea of green, overgrown grass and leaf-studded branches almost reaching out for some sort of embrace. The fire hydrant in front of the crumbling home even tops with a green hat. For me, green has long symbolized growth and life. As I listen to the sounds of the man mowing his piece of land, land that probably once held a home, the greenery of plants and trees is just a cover up. In an area that saw so much death and destruction due to nature’s storm, nature is peeking through again. The growth toward recovery is far too slow, but in the blades of green grass, there is still life. 

 

Yellow

I am standing on my second floor balcony in Ortigia, Sicily when a parade of life, tradition and spirit comes marching into my view. The buildings surrounding the scene light up in my favorite hue of yellow. More glistening and surreal than bright yellows, it’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Mary is making her way through the streets of Siracusa’s old town. The men carrying her pause every few feet and shout out a phrase. The only words I can muster out of their sounds is “Santa Maria”. She glows in that golden yellow and for a second or two from my perch, I half believe this is not statue. A saint is before me.

 

White

In Locorotondo, you can wear your sunglasses at night. What has received the official title as the borghi piú belli d’Italia, adorns in only one color, white. From the buildings to the streets to the whipping white sheets waving from windows, Locorotondo blinds the eyes no matter the time of day or intensity of the sun. I wander the streets looking for other colors, but I can only find them in flower boxes bursting with blood red flowers. Officially one of Italy’s most beautiful towns, it is no wonder Locorotondo doesn’t try to change its color scheme, but keeps things simply clad in white.

Red

It’s my 23^rd birthday and dinner has appropriately reached new heights in Maratea, Italy. I’m perched up above the small town on Italy’s Basilicata coastline. I can see the buses gathering locals to take them home for the night. My gaze shifts once my waitress plops down a carafe of sparkling white wine and bruschetta. Two glasses and two pieces of bread topped with fire engine red tomatoes are the perfect birthday gift. With one crunch of the olive oil drizzled bread, a few tomatoes go flying. It might just be a simple bruschetta and another birthday in a life of many, but it’s a taste of a tomato in Italy. It is rich in flavor and perfect as it can only be a country that knows how to produce the reddest and most delicious tomatoes. In essence, this is Italy before me: relaxed, simple, bright, a little chaotic and delicious in one bite.

 

I’m supposed to nominate five other bloggers to share their blues, greens, whites, reds and yellows before the contest ends on August 29th. As I am usually late to the party in terms of these things, if you haven’t been nominated already or written your entry for the contest, please leave a comment below and that will be my nomination for you.

What’s your favorite color to capture on your travels?