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Category Archives for "Yucatan & Mexico"Carol Chapman conceived and is directing and editing the Yucatan Travel movie, an entertaining documentary with information about traveling in Yucatan, Mexico.
Carol Chapman conceived and is directing and editing the Yucatan Travel movie, an entertaining documentary with information about traveling in Yucatan, Mexico.
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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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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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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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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I know I said we were going to the ruins at Chichen Itza today for the big March 21st event. However, this morning I had the opportunity to attend a traditional Spring Equinox ceremony presided over by Mayan elders.
I felt afraid that my video camera might provide an intrusion in the sacred ceremony. However, when the grey-haired elder saw me, he asked that I tape the ceremony. I felt so happy to be of use to him.
It involved a walk into nature where five ceiba trees were planted – one for each of the cardinal directions and one in the center. I wish I could convey the mystical fragrance of the copal that was burned throughout the ceremony.
After the elder ceremoniously planted the trees, he continued with the second half of the event by smudging all of us with the fragrant smoke and then we were brushed with a small branch of green leaves dipped in water. The water splashed against my face to my surprise. The elder also brushed our torso and limbs.
Finally, we were given liquids to drink in gourds. One liquid contained the bark of the ceiba tree, cinnamon, honey, and purified water. I did not get the second drink because they ran out of it but Miriam did. She said it was made out of corn and water. Corn is very important to the Maya.
When we returned to the hotel, and after lunch, we were so tired that we slept all afternoon. I assume we had received a healing and our bodies were processing the changes. It had been important that we were in the sun and heat so that we were sweating during the ceremony.
During the event, I felt so moved that at times I was almost in tears even though I could not understand a word that was said since the event was in Mayan. I felt so grateful and full of love for the elder who was the leader of the ceremonies. There was also one man who kept feeding the clay burner containing the copal. He also sang at various times. Two men blew on conch shells whenever a ceiba tree was planted. Another man played hypnotically on a hollow log drum.
After the ceremony, I asked, through a translator, if I could ask the elder about 2012. He graciously accepted and told me his understanding of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for all of us.
It wasn’t only the healing that kept us from the event at Chichen Itza. Most of the afternoon was overcast. Clouds filled most of the sky. In the end, we awoke from our afternoon sleep just as the sun broke through the clouds at 5 pm, the time of the light on the serpent. It lasted for five minutes and then it began to rain.
When we drove to the restaurant for dinner, we were amazed at the number of people pouring out of the Chichen Itza ruins. Not only were they walking three abreast on the shoulders of the road, but an overflow parking area had been created where over a dozen buses were parked. It must have been crazy in there, just as a tour guide had said when we saw the light on the serpent yesterday. We were fortunate to have seen the light pattern on the side of the serpent for over 30 minutes yesterday.
Love and blessings,
Carol Chapman
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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Today is the day of the official spring Equinox. Chichen Itza was our destination. Even though the pattern of light on the side of the stone serpent is supposed to be the best tomorrow, the weather prediction has been for intermitent clouds so I wanted to be at the Chichen Itza ruins today as well as tomorrow just in case clouds covered the sun and therefore obliterated the magical sunlight pattern on the side of the ancient stone serpent. I figured we would have a better chance of capturing the event on videotape and film if we went more than one day.
As I said in my last post, John was delayed flying into Cancun because his aircraft developed a crack in its wildshield. He drove during the night from Cancun to Merida to make a rendezvous with me. In the morning, we enjoyed breakfast at our hotel in Merida and then headed to Chichen Itza for a late lunch on our way back to Cancun to pick up our daughter, Miriam, who is also an important personality in the movies I am making.
Her plane was also delayed. We did not get back to Chichen Itza until around midnight. However, we all awoke refreshed, albiet John and I almost too late to make it to the Hotel Chichen Itza’s restaurant for breakfast.
In the afternoon, we headed out to the ruins at Chichen Itza. Already crowds of people poured into the site in anticipation of the serpent event. It was a hot day. Miriam commented that she noticed a number of people scantily clad in bikini tops or men without tops because of the heat.
After videotaping establishing shots for the event, we hid out in the shade of some trees where vendors had set up their wares. Miriam loved the brightly painted ceramic bowls and stylized animals. We examined painted clay turtles. She chose a lovely red one to bring home.
We sat, relaxed, and waited until we saw the crowds congregating on the grass on the side of the Pyramid of Kukulcan where the light was supposed to make the diamond pattern on the side of the stone serpent. Its body rises up the height of the pyramid.
Next began the jockeying for the best viewing and photographing position. A group of Japanese women well covered in flowing hats or carrying umbrellas sat in front of me taking pictures. A lovely Mexican girl and her adoring boyfriend embraced and looked into each other’s eyes beside me. A Chinese grandmother ran after a cute little toddler in a pink cotton cap.
We waited. I don’t know if he did this on purpose or if it just happened so but I’d like to think that John graciously stood beside me to cast a shadow over my head to protect me from the blistering sun.
We waited. John pointed out that the diamond pattern was becoming more pronounced. Miriam came to sit beside me and said that she hoped she wouldn’t be disappointed. The three of us continued to click shutters and videotape.
One of the men officiating told people who were standing to either move back or to sit down. John had to leave me to the heat of the sun.
Just as the pattern almost became perfect, a cloud covered the sun. Moans rang out through the crowd of hundreds of people. After a few minutes, a number of people left.
The rest of us sitting on the grass jockied for better viewing positions. I inadvertently sat on a young girl’s hand. One of the Japanese women shoved in front of me and told me to leave a place for her girlfriend. A young red-headed man with his lovely girlfriend stepped over all of us and sat right in the middle of our view.
We continued to adjust and readjust ourself in anticipation of the sun coming out of the clouds again.
A few minutes later, the sun peaked out again and the pattern of light on the serpent almost looked perfect. Camera shutters clicked and video cameras whirred.
However, in only a few more minutes, shade covered the site. The wind bega to blow. After hours of intense head, the cooler air felt refreshing.
I looked behind us and saw a bank of grey clouds. It was over. Most people stood up and brushed the dry grass and dirt off of their trousers.
After stopping at the Chichen Itza ruins restaurant for fresh orange juice and water, we went back to our hotel satisfied that we had seen the light pattern. I learned from people in the crowd that the last two years had been a total disappointment because of rain.
The weather report for tomorrow is also partly cloudy. Hopefully the sun will continue to shine a bit longer. Nonetheless, I am very happy to have been among all those people and to have shared the spectacle to almost perfection.
Carol Chapman
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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We are in Merida. And, my, what an adventure John had to get here.
My experience was relatively simple. I simply got lost in the Mexico City airport, could not find anyone who could adequately understand my English to give me proper directions, ended up outside the airport, had to go through security again,almost missed immigration, and got to my gate just at EXACTLY the right time to walk straight onto the plane!
When I got to Merida, I found a Taxi stand outside the airport building – something new, you pay before you get in the taxi – remembered to get my “recebo,” was soooooo grateful that in the darkness of the early evening I had a taxi because I would have never otherwise found the hotel which was down a very narrow one-way street after a harrowing half hour drive through very crowded streets and cars and trucks jutting out into traffic and loads of pedestrians on the sidewalks and crossing the streets.
On top of all that, you would have never even known there was a hotel at the spot where the taxi stopped. No neon lighted sign. No big painted sign. Only a very discreet awning with three inch high letters saying, “hotel” and engraved on the window glass, “Dolores Alba.”
As I entered the lobby, I first saw a striking reproduction of a self-portrait of Freida Kohla, the great Mexican artist. She looked gorgeous dressed in a red dress with her hand brushed tentatively on her neck with gorgeous red flower on her head. I have seen the movie about Frieda, loved it and felt instantly at home when I saw this painting.
However, Frieda was a strange internally distressed human being, fluttering between bi-sexuality, angry with the infidelities of her fellow-artists husband, and tortured by a tragic bus accident that left her crippled and in great pain for most of her life. Her self-portraits, with her black single eyebrows staring back at me, felt slightly disturbing.
My feelings were not unfounded because John should have been waiting for me at Dolores Alba and he was no where to be found. He was supposed to fly into Cancun at about 1:00 p.m., rent a car, and drive to Merida. We would meet at Dolores Alba in Merida and would be on the same schedule the rest of the trip. Where was he?
After I checked in and showered, he still had not arrived. I was very hungry but felt too tired to walk the “three block and one over or five blocks in the other direction” to find an open restaurant in the darkness. Furthermore, I felt that if I left the hotel, John might arrive and I could miss him.
I decided to buy a package of “japonais” flavored coated peanuts in the vending machine, buy a bottle of water – made the mistake of starting to brush my teeth before I remembered to use only bottled water – felt I was too tired to go out so, after standing outside the hotel for a while hoping John might drive the busy narrow street without obvious hotel markings and flag him down.
He did not drive by. I had half the package of peanuts in my room, drank some “agua purificado” from the bottle, brushed my teeth with the same water and decided that wherever John was, I needed to get my sleep to better look for him, if he did not turn up, the next morning.
I reminded myself that John is a very hardy individual and has survived retying ropes to his beloved sailboat during hurricane Isabel, was lost in Paris for five hours while I waited for him to pick me up and because my intuitiion was working at a full ability “knew” he was lost on the circular and triangular Parisian streets so left my luggage with the concierge and went for lunch at a nearby bistro.
The long and the short of it was that I turned the a/c on in my room and fell asleep.
A wakened to hear tapping sounds on the door. John’s voice whispered, “Carol, it’s me.”
He’d made it. I shuffled to the door. It was him!
My first thought was, “What time is it?” Isn’t it strange what you think of to say first. Not, “Thank God, you made it,” or “Darling, darling!” It was obvious he’d made it and obvious I missed him since we were hugging.
“3 AM,” he said.
He told me that his plane, out of Miami, had turned back after being one hour in the air. Later, the co-pilot explained that the windshield of the plane had developed a crack and they had to turn back.
In the end, he was delayed by seven hours arriving in Cancun.
I am really proud of myself that I did not go into a warp-drive panic. Maybe my intuition was working in spite of how tired and exhausted I felt from a day flying from Richmond to Dallas to Mexico City and finally to Merida.
More on John’s adventures driving here and finding the hotel later.
Carol Chapman
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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Well, I’ll be in Merida, Yucatan later today. And then, off to Chichen Itza for the Spring Equinox event when the sunlight makes triangle patterns on the stone serpents. Should be many people there. Hope I get pictures and video footage. That’s what I’m after.
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The Witch and the Sorcerer
In Arrival of the Gods in Egypt, I wrote about the sorcerer dwarf on page 154 saying that “I interviewed Santiago Domingez, a modern-day Maya whose family has lived for generations close to Uxmal. He told me the story, handed down from his grandparents, of the witch. She was lonely. Therefore, she took an egg and hatched out of it a dwarf who became her companion.”
I had heard this story before. Possibly I read it in a guidebook or read it in a book about the Maya. In the stories I had read, there was no mention of the witch being lonely. These stories would just proclaim that this witch decided to hatch a dwarf out of an egg which sounded like some nonsensical story fabricated by primitive people to make sense of their world.
However, when I heard the story from Santiago, I saw that the legend had a deeper meaning. Santiago said that the witch was lonely and that it was her loneliness that caused her to hatch the dwarf out of the egg. The story became a creation story on a par with the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam was also lonely and had his companion, Eve, was created in an amazing manner.
In Arrival of the Gods in Egypt, I continued by referring to Edgar Cayce’s concept of twin souls. I believe the egg represents the primordial soul that becomes two twin souls.
This legend of the witch and dwarf sorcerer refers to that time when single souls separated into twins. The witch and the dwarf are the twin souls.
While in Yucatan this December, I talked again with Santiago. It was good to see him. I wanted to make sure that I photographed the correct stone carving of the dwarf when I visited Uxmal last January. He assured me that I had. However, he said that researchers at the Uxmal archeological zone said that the carving his grandparents described as the dwarf was actually supposed to be the king. I told Santiago that I took more stock in the traditions of his grandparents than a modern-day researcher’s opinions. Santiago said that since the dwarf became the king it made sense that the carving of the king could also be the dwarf.
I had good reasons for supporting the long-lasting traditions of Santiago’s traditional grandparents. Last January, when we visited Uxmal, we stayed for the nighttime Sound and Light show. To my great disappointment, there was no mention of the Legend of the Sorcerer Dwarf and the Witch. Instead, they told a fabricated story about young men of one village vying for a Mayan princess’s hand or something along that line.
It was a simple story that had nothing to do with the magnificent ruins of Uxmal which reverberate with intrinsic mystery because the main pyramid is named the Pyramid of the Sorcerer or as Santiago calls it, “Piramide de Adivino” and there is also a ruin named the Witch’s House.
Santiago said it also made him sad that the traditional legends were not included in the Sound and Light show.
Definitely disappointing.
Copyright 2009 Carol Chapman
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Have your heard about this Near Earth Asteroid 433 Eros? Some people think an Eros collision with earth in 2012 will cause the predicted “end of the world” in 2012, for example, in this excerpt from a blogpost:
Is this the Asteriod 433 Eros, the first discovered Near-Earth asteroid, smashing through our atmospere? Eros is one of the few NEAs with a maximum diameter greater than 10 km. It is believed to be larger than the impactor that created Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatán, which has been linked to the Apocalypse (extinction) of the dinosaurs.
On January 31, 2012, Eros is expected to pass Earth, Is this the 2012 Apocalypse??
The article goes on to say that:
Objects in an orbit like Eros can exist for only a few hundred million years before the orbit is perturbed by gravitational interactions. Simulations suggest that Eros may evolve into an Earth-crosser with Apocalyptic power.
What do you think? Does 433 Eros have the capability of becoming an “Apocalyptic Power?”
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