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Cenotes and the Chicxulub Meteor Crash

Last night, Miriam ran into our hotel room at Dolores Alba in Merida with her eyes sparkling.

“Guess who I just talked to?” she said.

I couldn’t begin to imagine. By her demeanor, Arnold Schwartzenegger or a rock star came to mind – not very likely, though, in a moderately priced Yucatecan hotel.

“I give up,” I said.

“Kristine and Santiago! They’re staying here at Dolores Alba!”

It made sense that Miriam would be so happy to see the two of them. We always enjoy their company. If you remember, we had recently stayed at Kristine and Santiago’s Flycatcher Inn in the Mayan village of Santa Elena for a couple of days. I now recalled that Santiago had said that they were coming to Merida to visit their daughter and also to shop.

The next morning, after Miriam and John had left for their flights from Cancun to the U.S., I happened upon Kristine and Santiago while they were eating their breakfasts at Dolores Alba in the outdoor inner courtyard.

We had only parted two days ago, but we had so much to say to each other. The topics of conversation went from Hunbatz Men to the origin of the red soil of the Yucatan to the many underground cave systems.

Kristine said, “Have you ever noticed that most of the cenotes are in a semi-circle across the top of the Yucatan Peninsula?”

OK, I thought, it makes sense that she would think of cenotes after discussing underground cave systems since cenotes are openings or sinkholes in the limestone surface of the Yucatan that expose the underlying underground water system.

I thought about what Kristine had said. Were the cenotes in a semi-circular pattern? As a matter of fact, I had noticed the curious fact that on my map of the northern Yucatan Peninsula, the cenotes are clustered and in only certain areas. Now that she mentioned it, I realized that they did form a large semi-circle from north of Uxmal in the west to Tulum in the east.

“Now that I think of it,” I said, “they are in a semi-circular pattern.”

“That’s because the cenotes were formed when the Chicxulub Metero hit,” she said. “I found a map online that shows that the crater is located partly in the Gulf of Mexico and partly on the land.

Here’s a link to the map, which is third image down, on this page on the Flycatcher Inn’s web site: http://www.flycatcherinn.com/mchicxulub.htm

I know that my guidebook says that cenotes form when the surface limestone collapses revealing the underground river below it. Then, the guidebook goes on to say that visitors to the Yucatan need not worry that the collapse of a sinkhole will occur while they are there because these sinkhole collapses occur very infrequently.

However, Kristine was proposing that cenotes were created long, long ago – in fact, 65 million years ago – when the Chicxulub meteor impacted the earth lifting huge coral formations out of the sea to form the Yucatan Peninsula. How intriguing!

With the mention of cenotes, I regretted that although we had visited Cenote Zaci in Valladolid, we had not swam in its waters. Zaci looked so much bigger than I had expected and also its water looked so very, very dark.

All the photos I’ve seen of cenotes look so inviting with their turquoise waters lit by a beam of sunlight shining in through the hole in the earth above the water.

We learned from that visit to Zaci that you need to visit a cenote when the sun is overhead such as around noon hour. I’ve also read that the water can be 500 feet deep. No wonder the black water looked so uninviting.

Now that I knew of the possibility that the cenotes had resulted from the Chicxulub Meteor impact, I felt we simply had to visit some cenotes when we returned to the Yucatan.

Obviously, there is so much more to explore in the Yucatan. But, that will have to wait for future visits.

I’m finishing the chronicles of this visit on my laptop 38,000 feet up in the sky sandwiched between two Spanish-speaking people on this flight from Merida to Mexico City to Los Angeles. I am surrounded by Mayas and Aztecs, many of them, American citizens.

Because John mentioned, during a conversation last night, that someone told him that you can tell how much Spanish a man has in him by whether he shaves or not, I’m looking very closely at the men’s faces to see if there’s any evidence of a beard. The man sitting beside me, who I spent some time with at the beginning of the flight jockeying for space on the arm rest between us, is smooth faced. He looks round-faced and therefore is likely Maya.

Most of the people on the plane with me are of Mexican origin. The gringos like me stick out like white carnations in a bouquet of red and bronze flowers.

It’s time to put the computer away. The pilot’s voice over the loudspeaker says we are making our approach to the airport.

I am sad to say that my wonderful time in the Yucatan is truly over.

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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Mayan Elder Hunbatz Men

Today, we had the honor and privilege of interviewing Mayan Elder Hunbatz Men on tape.

We met in his home and business location in Merida, Yucatan. He also has a ceremonial center in a rural area east of Merida.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover how much John enjoyed visiting with Hunbatz probably because Hunbatz’s approach to the ancient Mayan knowledge, with which he has been entrusted, is through a scientific mix with religion.

He told us about a new book he has written that will be available from Bear & Co. in about a month. The title is something like, The Eight Calendars.

We had an extensive discussion about
Eric J. Thompson, who discovered the Stela in Coba with the December 21, 2012 date on it and the errors Thompson made in deciphering the glyphs on the stela. After all, the glyphs have only recently been extensively translated. So, how could Eric Thompson have been so sure of his information when he visited Coba around 1925?

I thought this was a very good point and wished I had thought of it myself.

It was obvious that Hunbatz is a deep and original thinker. He said that Thompson only knew of three Mayan calendars: the Tszol’kin, the Haab, and the Long Count. However, Hunbatz, through his scientific study of Mayan tradition, has uncovered eight.

I am glad that our conversation was videotaped because, to tell you the truth, we talked about so many topics in the hour in which we met, that I would have to review the tape to recall it all.

Vaguely, a recollection surfaces about a discussion of the validity of John Major Jenkins’ observation about the galactic center line up of the sun and earth as well as my husband John talking about planetary exploration. I do not know how we went from the one topic to the other.

In any case, I knew you were curious to know how the meeting went so I wanted to get back to you tonight, even though we have a full evening ahead of us because of packing up for our flights out of the Yucatan tomorrow.

We ended up having our photos taken with Hunbatz. So often I am busily involved with videotaping the person we are interviewing and forget to get a “I was here with you” photo. I hope to post this photo on this blog sometime after I get home next week.

As we left, I felt happy because Hunbatz said that it was not “good-bye” but “until we meet again.”

Blessings,

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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House of Fall.us, Ero.tic Dreams & Progreso

THE HOUSE OF THE FALL.US

Yesterday, I wrote about the House of the Fall.us in the Uxmal archeological site. This reminds me of the next complimentary dream teleseminar, which will be with Gillian Holloway, author of, among other books, Ero.tic Dreams.

DR. GILLIAN HOLLOWAY – DREAM TELESEMINAR

I am very happy that Dr. Gillian Holloway has agreed to be my next guest for my series of complimentary dream teleseminars. She is the author of one of my favorite dream books, The Complete Dream Book: Discover What Your Dreams Reveal about You and Your Life, as well as Ero.tic Dreams: The Secret to Understanding Women’s Hidden Passions, and Dream Insight: A 5-Step Plan for Discovering the Meaning in Your Dream.

I’ve talked with her on the telephone and found her to be interesting, articulate, and fun. Put a note on your calendar for April 14th at 8:30 pm Eastern Time.

Dr. Holloway has asked me to invite you to send her email questions for the interview. You can email her questions ahead of time to me at Carol@CarolChapmanLive.com. She’s studied thousands of actual dreams, on which she bases her understanding of dreams, and is also an expert on nightmares.

Here’s a link to her web site: http://www.lifetreks.com.

If you want to receive the telephone number and passcode for this dream teleseminar and do not already receive my enewsletter, please register for this blog and I will put you on the list.

PROGRESO, YUCATAN

We are sitting at a table having just had our breakfast under a palapas roof outdoors in the inner square of our hotel, Yakuna, in Progreso. Progreso is a seaside town on the north coast of the Yucatan alongside the Golfo de Mexico. It’s a lovely place where the wind is always blowing thereby reducing the effects of the tropical sun.

Hotel Yakuna has wireless internet in the lobby and restaurant so we, and United Kingdom couple at the table next to us, are getting caught up on emails this morning as palm fronds clack in the breeze around us.

Miriam has just left for the beach and, after enjoying a swim in the light emerald-colored water of the Gulf of Mexico, will meet us for lunch under a palapos roof on the sand at a beachfront restaurant. We have at Sharks during previous visits to the Yucatan and enjoy the delicious fresh seafood.

Last night, we ate at Buddy’s, a very ex-pat Canadian place owned by a gold-necklaced Hollander who also owns a bar. We’ve also eaten there before and John especially enjoys the company of the extrovered English-speaking people who are drawn there.

HUNBATZ MEN INTERVIEW

Today, I telephoned long distance to Merida to set up my final shoot. It will be with Hunbatz Men, a Mayan Elder, who has written a number of books, such as Secrets of Mayan Religion/Science that was translated from Spanish into English and published in the U.S. by Bear and Co.

It has been difficult to set up this encounter because Hunbatz has been busy with an intense program for a couple of weeks centered around the Spring Equinox during which time he led tours to many ruin sites and conducted a number of ceremonies.

I look forward to finally meeting with this learned and kind man. I appreciate that he is willing to be interviewed in English considering that his first language is Yucatecan Mayan, his second language is Spanish, and English is a distant third.

A GOOD YUCATAN TRAVEL

Miriam, John, and I agreed, at breakfast today, that this has been a good trip, that I planned it well so we weren’t driving too many days, and also that I didn’t have us staying for too short a time in too many places. Because of my good planning, our two weeks here felt more like a month . . . a very enjoyable month.

I feel good because, through experience, I’m finally getting the hang of planning a very enjoyable travel in the Yucatan with a good mix of visits inland to smoldering but interesting ruins relieved by refreshing breezy beach visits.

Love and blessings,

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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Uxmal & the Witch’s House

Hi again,

Miriam and I went to Uxmal again this morning. We had spent about an hour the previous day between 4 and 5 pm, just before the ruins area closed, taking photos of the stone carvings on the West Building of the Nunnery Quadrangle.

I suspected the photos would not look as good as they should because we had visited the Uxmal Archeological Zone late in the day when the sun was setting behind the West Building, making the stone carvings look grey and flat.

Last night, when we reivewed the photos and footage we had taken the previous day, as we do most nights, I could see we would need to go back to the ruins and take the photos again in the morning when the sunlight would impart definition and a golden glow to the ancient rocks, many of which are covered in dark mold.

We hoped to be at the ruin early when the air would still be relatively cool. However, we took a long time saying good-bye to Kristine Ellingson and Santiago Dominguez, our hosts at Flycatcher Inn, the bed and breakfast where we stay when visiting Uxmal. They are becoming great friends. As a result, we did not get to the ruin until 10:30 am.

John chose to spend his time at the Uxmal Villas Archeologicas pool where we would meet him for lunch after our jaunt through the ruins.

It was hot. Unlike the coast, where cool breezes blow from the water to constantly refresh us, inland in the Puuc highlands, the sun pours down on us unrelenting. The only sanctuary is the shade or to hope for clouds or even the blessing of rain.

During our exploration of the Nohpat ruins yesterday, Santiago had commented that we were fortunate because some rain had fallen and that our whole time in the unexcavated ruin had been under cloudy skies. He said that a man he had taken to the ruins previously, on a very hot day, had fallen to his knees because of dizziness, and had to be helped out of Nohpat.

Unlike the heavy cloud cover of yesterday, puffy cumulus clouds only occasionally blocked the unrelenting rays of the sun. I did not know I could sweat that much!

We were sure to stop and sit in the shade of a tree every once in a while, especially after climbing hot stone stairs. Miriam is my daughter and I feel I should be taking care of her. However, she takes care of me like a Mother Hen, reminding me to drink water, to wear sunscreeen, to wear my sunhat, and to take occasional rests after exerting myself. I appreciate her help!

I am excited by the stone images carved on the side of the West Building of the Nunnery Quadrangle in Uxmal because they show the man in the feathered serpent’s mouth as well as the dwarf who became the king of Uxmal. This is the same dwarf who is the magician or sorcerer that legend says built the Pyramid of the Sorcerer in one night.

Because of this legend, I believe that the Uxmal area is likely a place where Atlanteans came when they fled the geologically unstable Atlantis. Edgar Cayce’s psychic readings say that Atlanteans fled to Egypt, Peru, and Yucatan.

After completing our photographic survey of the carvings on the West Building, we headed out to find the ruin that is presently called, “The House of the Old Woman.” In books about Mayan ruins published before the 1980s, I have seen this ruin called, “The House of the Witch,” referring to the witch who hatched the sorcerer dwarf out of an egg.

Today, as we approached the ruin, I asked a guide who was leading a group through the ruins, where to find the path to the House of the Old Woman.

“Oh, that’s not an old woman. It’s really about Ixchell, the Mayan Fertility Goddess of both humans and animals.”

I find it interesting how, depending on what the latest trend is in archeological myths, the name of various ruins change.

We found the ruin by following the path the guide suggested. The ruin has not been excavated or reconstructed very much. There were no interesting carvings on what remains of the building.

However, we did find a stone carving under a palapas roof, which might have been a carving of the witch/old woman/Ixchell. Miriam and I had a disagreement over whether the hole in the middle of the goddess’ torso represented her womb or whether she was actually a squat, sturdy woman and the hole was actually the space separating her legs.

It was easy to have thoughts of her womb, because nearby, under a separate palapas roof, there were many stone carvings of falluses. The ancient people of Uxmal seemed to have a great fascination with this part of the male’s anatomy.

I remember seeing a book from the library – it must have been published before 1980 – which showed a photograph of the House of the Fallus in Uxmal. The photograph showed the falluses sticking out of the walls of the building. Was this a place for ritual sexual liasons?

When I’ve asked guildes to take us to the House of the Fallus during previous Uxmal visits, they have said the building was too far away or it was in accessible or out-of-bounds for tourists or some other reason.

By the looks of the dozen or so falluses protected under the palapas roof, I wonder if they came from the House of the Fallus. In any case, they were displayed in an area where few people ever visit because guides no longer take people to the House of the Old Woman/Witch/Ixchell.

I am glad we came upon these out-of-the-way, non-publicized ruins. It made our visit interesting and has given us a lot to think about.

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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Tulum Cabanas & an Unexcavated Ruin

TULUM CABANAS

Our guidebook tells us that there are cabanas on the beach in Tulum with a beautiful view of the ocean and gorgeous white sand beaches, so we decided to check them out for possible future lodging.

We found the beaches to be superb. However, the cabanas are not our style. For the most part, there is no electricity, therefore, after dark, generators roar and most places are totally dark after about 11 pm.

They’re also very pricey. We did find one place advertised as $39 USD per night that had small sand-floored bungalows made of sticks, like a typical Mayan home. The sticks let the cool breezes blow through the building.

None of us liked the shared bathrooms. At the Winter Star Party, which is located at a girl scout camp in the Florida Keyes, there is a girls and a boys shower house, so we don’t mind sharing. But these bathrooms afforded very little privacy at all.

EXPLORING AN UNEXCAVATED RUIN

Today, we went with our friend and host at the Flycatcher Inn bed and breakfast in Santa Elena, Santiago Dominges, on an exploration of an unexcavated ruin next to Uxmal.

San drove us into the site which is on farmland where San personally helped his uncle plant corn during San’s younger years. I am so glad we drove in instead of walked in, even though San had to drive very slow over the rocky parts of the tire-track dirt road through the jungle because Miriam had to sit in the cab of the truck. It was a very long way to walk!

Nohpat is one of the many ruins on the Puuc Route, of which Uxmal is the main one. Because Kabah, Labna and Sayil, also on the Puuc route, are not especially large sites, I expected Nohpat to be a relatively small pile of rocks with trees growing out of it.

To my surprise, the site is huge and contains one large pyramid, which is a huge pile of rocks with trees growing out of it, and many smaller piles of rocks with trees growing out of them that look like they are temples.

We felt like Stevens and Catherwood, who had been in Nohpat in the late 1800s, because little has changed since that time. We walked and walked hoping not to get too many ticks on us or to get too many mosquito bites.

Santiago is very excited about Nohpat because this whole area consists of his ancestral lands. We wanted to show us first one pile of rocks then another pile of rocks, cutting through the overgrown path with his machete.

Finally, dragging my video camera and its tripod plus a walking stick to keep my balance over the rocks, I thanked him and told him that we had seen enough.

He would have been glad to take us to many more ruins. He knows them all very well and, even though there are trees in the way, can see in his mind’s eye where the central square would have been.

We took many photographs and a lot of footage. This site is supposed to be the site of the witch that hatched the sorcerer dwarf out of an egg.

Carol Chapman

Coyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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Maya Repair Palapas Roof Damage

When we arrived for breakfast at the Lol He Beach Club resaurant, where we usually have our morning meal in Akumal, I noticed that there was a three-foot hole in the top of the huge paplapas roof that covers this seaside restaurant.

Shortly after we finished our meal, while we sipped on coffees and discussed the day’s itinerary, our waiter asked us to move to a table in another section of the restaurant. He said the hole in the top of the palapas roof had occurred overnight. It looked as if the wind had ripped off a palm frond and hurled it into the roof to rip open the hole.

A number of Maya men, dressed in overalls, arrived with pipes and put together scaffolding that reached up to the roof. Two men climbed to the top, another dragged in a bunch of palm leaf fronds and attached them to a yellow rope the men on top of the scaffolding threw down to him.

I felt delighted to watch and record the repair of the hole in the palapas roof. Watching the men climb the scaffolding brought back to me my years as a photojournalist at NASA when I, too, climbed scaffolding, but, in my case, for the purpose of photographing aircraft below.

With the wind blowing so fiercely off the ocean, I was reminded of one experience on the top of a “cherry picker” when the head of NASA Langley’s Photo Lab and I photographed our fleet of experimental aircraft below. We were so high above the ground to get all of the planes that the truck below us looked like a child’s toy.

At the top of the “cherry picker” the wind made it sway back and forth. I felt afraid but did not want to show it because weakness can be jeered at among the rough and ready photographers. Fortunately, the head of Photo Lab was a kind man.

We stood side by side in the basket on top of the “cherry picker’s” tall arm.

I asked him, “Do you mind if I put my little finger over yours?” He knew I was afraid as the basket swayed this way and that.

“It’s OK, Carol,” he said, “and I won’t tell anyone.”

Bless that man!

Our photos looked great and were published (in my case as the press photographer) and used in scientists’ paper (in his case) the way they should be.

Today, I thought how these Maya men were the descendents of the men who made the pyramids. They are also the same men who have built the huge hotels in Cancun. They are unafraid of heights.

As John say, “The men have incredible balance!”

They climbed up and down the scaffolding in wind off the ocean that made the tarps along the restaurant walls billow so stronly that earlier, little children eating breakfast at a nearby table, had bounced off the billowing tarps.

In the past, I have seen construction workers at night lit by a single incandescent light lounging in hammocks a number of stories up in a building they are constructing and had wished that I would have photographed them.

Today, I got my chance.

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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The Circus at the Tulum Ruins

You might be thinking, as a certain reader wrote to be yesterday in reference to the stela with the carving of the 41.9 billion billion billion Long Count Calendar date on a stela in Coba, “What does your intuition say?”

I replied: My intuition is soooo confused and I was sooooo exhausted tramping around that huge Coba ruin. OK, I know that there’s something really important about Coba. Not sure if this is it or not. And, still not really sure if this is the correct stela since the carvings are so weathered that my conscious mind says, “You’ve got to be kidding. How could anyone see anything on these stelae?” Actually, the guidebook says that when the sun is at certain angles the weathered carvings pop out. I can believe that since it happened to me when I was in Chichen Itza this last time and, for the first time, saw and photographed a certain bas relief carving of an ancient warrior that one guide told me was Itzamna. When I visited Chichen Itza a year ago, I could hardly see the details of the carving. However, this time, the sun was in the exactly correct place and the image almost leaped off the rock! It looked as if it was outlined in black.

We had a rest-from-filming day today. However, at breakfast, while relaxing with the wind blowing off the beautiful turquoise water of the Caribbean, a young man and father at the next restaurant table leaned back and asked us, “Been here before?”

When we answered in the affirmative, he then asked, “Know anywhere cheaper to eat?”

“Sure,” we replied, “You won’t believe it, because you’re going to expect that everything at the ruins is so much more expensive, but our favorite and cheapest restaurant around here is at the Tulum ruins . . . the Argentinian restaurant. It also has the best coffee in the whole of the Yucatan!”

“Wait a minute,” the young man said, “Are you saying there are restaurants at the ruins?”

Obviously, this affable young man had never been to a ruin before.

“Yeah, sure, there is often at least one restaurant and also usually many craft stalls. Actually, Tulum, being about a 2 hour drive from Cancun, is inundated with tourists. It has a little train pulled by a tractor that takes you to the entrance of the ruins, many restaurants, tons of craft shops . . . it’s like a circus.”

The young man looked over at his lovely young wife and their two elementary-school aged sons. “Are you saying that the kids would find it interesting at an ancient Mayan ruin?”

I could see Miriam, who was sitting across the plata de fruta from me, started to roll her eyes because I knew she knew what was coming. Her mom and step-dad where about to wax eloquent about the ruins at Tulum and they might just go on and on and on.

“Heck,” I said, “The kids will love it! There’s a guy dressed up with feathers along his arms and a very realistic- looking imitation hawk’s head over his head. He spreads his wings and poses for tourist pictures. There’s also these amazing acrobats from some indigenous tradition who, dressed in their native costumes, climb a long pole while one of them plays a flute. Once they get to the top, they drop backwards tethered by a rope and slowly circle upside down until they are low enough to the ground to summersault onto their feet.”

“The best thing is the iguana,” John said.

“What?” asked the young man. His sons were definitely interested in what we were saying now.

“The iguana,” John repeated. “This guy carries around a huge ignuana. It’s tail is so long, it touches the ground when the man carries the reptile against his shoulder. The iguana’s body is almost three feet long and about 6 inches thick. You can come up to it and pet it or, for a small fee, the guy will put it across your shoulders with the tail draped down your front.”

The little boys’ eyes opened wide.

“Face it,” Miriam piped in, “if you get bored with the ruins – but my Mom and Dad never seem to – you can always go swimming . . . ”

“In a ruin?” the young man quipped.

“In the Tulum ruin,” Miriam replied. “Tulum has a fantastic beach and a beautiful protected cove. Many people come to Tulum just to swim. Forget about the ruins.”

“You mean, the water is less choppy and the wind less intense than it is here in Akumal?” the lovely young mother asked.

“Tulum beaches are some of the best in the world,” Miriam answered. “Your kids will love it. You will love it.”

The rest of the morning, Miriam and I lay on beach beds on the sand between our hotel and Half Moon Bay in Akumal. We enjoyed the sound of the surf, the refreshing breeze, and conversations about many things both about the movie we were making and anything else that came to mind. John swam and snorkeled past the pounding surf over the coral at the foot of the sand bar.

We ate Fritos with lime (Fritos also come with chile and lime flavoring here) for lunch and then headed out to Yal-Ku, a lovely snorkelling area where the salt water flows inland and is protected by limestone headlands. The water here was smooth and calm. The howling wind was a breeze.

We saw many beautiful parrot fish, some kind of turquoise fish, and the funniest, strangest fish I’ve ever seen in the wild. It was only about 3 inches long, had big protruding eyes like a frog, was reddish-brown colored, had a big head compared to the rest of its body and tapered to a small point of a flat tail. It liked to hide under the limestone rocks that hung over the water.

It looked so unusual that Miriam and I wanted to give it a name. Because it looked so unique, we named it Hermoine (after our beloved Harry Potter character), the slug fish.

It’s a good life.

Blessings,

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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The 41.9 billion billion billion year stela & Itzamna in Tulum

Hi again,

Today, we are in Akumal, an area known as the most Americanized part of the Riviera Maya.

Strangely, as we entered the well-manicured yards, tiled sidewalks, and area of luxurious condos, my gut felt tight and I realized I felt afraid. Of what, I don’t know – that I’m not wealthy enough, cool enough, or that I couldn’t compete well enough . .. . something like that.

In the modest Mayan villages there was more of a feeling of people helping each other out.

I was unable to write yesterday because my mini laptop/netbook developed a connection problem at the more Americanized hotel where we are staying. Ironic, isn’t it?

Today, I’m in a noisy internet cafe with kids playing on a pinball machine and a slightly sticky mouse. That’s OK, at least I can communicate with you today.

Yesterday, we scourged the huge Coba ruin, to find something I could not find last year – the stela with the Long Count Calendar Date of 41.9 billion billion billion years into the future. I think we found it.

This is an important stela because it proves that the Mayan Long Count Calendar does not end on December 21, 2012, if the ancient Maya carved a date 41.9 billion billion billion years into the future. Furthermore, it proves that the ancient Maya did not believe the world would end in 2012.

Today, we were in Tulum, the gorgeous Caribbean seaside ruin, to find and videotape images of Itzamna. This time, I’m sure these are actual images of the son of the creator god, Hunab K’u. Many Tulum guides brought tourists to the place that Victor Olalde our Chichen Itza friend and guide, had told us would be there.

I am feeling pretty good. At last, I know for sure, that I have an image of Itzamna, the old wise prophet.

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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Itzamna and a Mayan Village

Last night, we visited our friend Victor Olalde. He had been our guide in Chichen Itza a year ago. He always knows a lot and shares with us.

I’m looking for an image of Izamna, the Maya equivalent of Christ – son of the creator god, Hunab K’u. Victor said we would find the image carved on the east wall of the Nunnery building beyond the Observatory at the Chichen Itza ruins.

We woke early, checked out of the hotel and headed to the ruins. it was strange to walk along the entrance path and NOT see any craft vendors. Some were setting their stalls up but none approached us to buy their wares. It felt good.

We knew, from our Moon handbook, that the Nunnery Building would be a long walk on this huge site, which is traditionally known as Itzamna’s ceremonial center.

We finally got to the building and saw the carving over the doorway just as Victor had said. Only a couple of German tourists shared the space with us. I set up my video camera on its tripod so I would be sure to get the image without any camera movement.

After a couple of minutes, an ancient Mayan guard turned up and told me I could not use a tripod. So, I took the camera off the tripod, telescoped the tripod legs and took the rest of my footage. The old guard also said the image was not Itzamna. I don’t know who to believe – Victor or the old guard.

We also quickly took footage to illustrate information I’d learned in the archives of Hacienda Chichen yesterday – that August Le Plongeon had excavated the Platforma de Venus. We also photographed and videotaped the chac mool that I believe Alice Le Plongeon, his wife, found with her psychic powers. Did I tell you that Alice also had memories of Atlantis and that was one of the reasons the Le Plongeons were in Chichen Itza . . . because they thought the site had an association with the lost continent.

At 10, we had an appointment with Jose at Hacienda Chichen. Miriam is considering being a volunteer with local Maya people for a month or so, which the Hacienda arranges. Jose is not only an elder-in-training, but also the head of their volunteer program.

He told us that he is presently too young to be consider as an elder. You can only be an elder after the age of 52.

Jose took us to his village where we saw children in the local school, the room where they ate and the infirmary associated with the school. The school meal area has been improved by Belisa Barancache, the “keeper” of Hacienda Chichen.

I loved the beautiful children’s inquisitive eyes. The little ones crowded around the back of the video camera to see the moving image being recorded.

My favorite part of the tour with Jose was a visit to a very traditionally Maya village in which women, in a business cooperative, were making the beautifully embroidered traditional white dresses called huiptil on sewing machines outside under the protection of a roof of a building in the village center. They spoke in Mayan. I asked to take their “photographia . . . OK?” They nodded.

I got some great pictures of some lovely women. I feel so happy to have seen the women – about a dozen of them – drawing the patterns on the cloth and then embroidering the design in bright colors on their sewing machines.

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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Interview with Hacienda Chichen “Keeper”

I sit tapping on the keyboard beide the beautifully lighted pool at Dolores Alba Chichen Itza hotel after a very fulfilling day.

Today, I met and interviewed on videotape the owner of the Hacienda Chichen. Belisa Barancanche, who calls herself the “keeper” of the 300 hectare ecologically preserved area, described her respect of the Maya and all they have to offer us.

Her family have owned the Hacienda Chichen for three generations. The Hacienda was originally built with stones from Mayan temples by the Spanish in the 1500s. During the 1800s, it housed such impressive Chichen Itza explorers as the Le Plongeons. In the 1920s, the Carnegie Institute made the Hacienda their home.

I had read that Alice Le Plongeon had told workers where to dig in the dirt to find a certain chac moll statue. I did not know, but learned today from Belisa, that Alice Le Plongeon was a talented psychic. She remembered having been in Chichen Itza during its heyday, which is why she could tell workers exactly where to dig for certain artifacts.

One of my personal heroines, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, a wonderful artist who drew sketches of what the ruins looked like while the ancient Maya lived in them, also lived at the Hacienda. Tatiana also made important breakthroughs in deciphering the meaning of the mysterious Mayan glyphs.

Belisa had many wonderful stories to tell. Her husband, Bruce, who is an American, is devoted to making the lands ecologically sustainable, for example, purifying the waste water of the hotel to be used on fields growing animal feed.

Hacienda Chichen is adjacent to the official ruinas Chichen Itza. A private entrance leads from the hotel grounds, which used to be used by archeologists staying there. Although the Hacienda grounds are separated from the official ruins, there are also many ruins on the hotel property.

Belisa has made part of the grounds available to Mayan elders to perform their sacred ceremony. This is where I attended the Equinox ceremony yesterday. She said that the government will not also the Elders at the actual official ruin site.

I felt very happy to have the opportunity to meet and talk with Belisa and Bruce. Here is a link to the a site with information about the Hacienda, the Mayan Elders, archeologist, ecologicaly sustainability and much, much more . . . http://www.yucatanadventure.com.mx.

Carol Chapman

Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman

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