Yucatan & Mexico | Carol Chapman

Book Excerpt – End of the World 2012

End of the World 2012:
The Latest Up-To-Date Information on the Mayan Calendar, the Alignment with the Galactic Center, and the December 21, 2012 Mayan Prophecies – Will the World End in 2012?

Chapter 6:
Prophecies of a New World from the Maya

To find out more about the Maya prophecies of a new world, we went to visit Dr. Robert K. Sitler, an authority on the Maya and also the Director of the Latin American Studies Program at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He is also the author of The Living Maya: Ancient Wisdom in the Era of 2012.

We talked with Dr. Sitler in his home. I liked that he was dressed casually in a cotton long-sleeved blue top, cotton trousers and sandals. There was something about the way he sat in a relaxed manner, that made me feel instantly comfortable in his presence.

I had first read about Dr. Sitler in an article he wrote, which was included in the book, The Mystery of 2012: Predictions, Prophecies, and Possibilities. Of all the articles in that book, his seemed to be one that appeared to address the actual Mayan prophecy that had originally started all the conjecture about the predictions of doomsday or, conversely, awakening.

Therefore, I felt grateful for the opportunity to interview him, because he seemed to be one of few who actually knew something about the Mayan prophecies and their origins.

Since I considered him to be a treasure trove of real information on the Maya and the Mayan prophecies, I first started by asking about prophecies of a new world.

I told him that I had heard, in my travels while filming the Yucatan Travel Movie that especially the Maya in the Tulum area were talking about something that was going to happen in “2000 and a little bit.” So, I asked Professor Sitler if he knew anything about this.

The Tulum Mayan ruins overlook a gorgeous white-sand beach. Photo by Miriam Balsley

Maya Prophecies of a New World from the Tulum Area

He replied, “Certainly one of the richest prophetic traditions in the Maya world—that particular area, starting at Tulum and going to the south and west from there, you’re in an area where people sometimes refer to themselves as ‘mas ehual’ [My best phonetic guess at how to spell what Dr. Sitler said, which is probably a phrase in Spanish, but it could also be Mayan.].

He continued, “These are the descendants of the rebels who fought the Caste War in the late 1800s and have been extremely resistance to assimilation into the Hispanic culture.”

By the way, as I mentioned earlier, in the Caste War the indigenous Maya fought the Spanish in an attempt to regain control of their ancestral lands. The Maya lost.

Dr. Sitler continued, “They have very strong prophetic traditions, most of which involve a war, and this time, instead of being brutally defeated, they would emerge victorious from the war. There would be a new world with Maya sensibilities in place.”

I had heard Alfred Rordame describe how Vedic Astrology predicted an opportunity for understanding the mysteries. Now, I heard Dr. Sitler talk about the prophecies of the Maya of the Tulum area, which involved a new world in which a Maya view of the world would predominate.

So far, I hadn’t heard anything about the end of the world.

Find out more about End of the World 2012 Book and EBook.

Only three Maya “books” or codices survived the Spanish conquest of Yucatan

A page from the Dresden Codex showing images from Maya civilization. ~ from Wikipedia commons–this image is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

The Maya, an indigenous people of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico plus Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, made folding books written on the inside bark of certain types of fig trees.

Called “codices” (codex in the singular), many were destroyed by the Spanish conquistadors and priests.

For example, in July of 1562, Bishop Diego de Landa ordered the destruction of all of the codices in the state of Yucatan.

De Landa also destroyed a Maya temple in Izamal, using the stones from the temple to make an elegant convent, which we visit in the Yucatan Travel Movie. Izamal is a gorgeous colonial city only about an hour and a half drive from Chichen Itza and well worth the visit.

The three codices that survived the Spanish conquest are named by the location of the museum where they presently reside.

The Dresden Codex, is housed in Germany, is made of 74 pages (39 leaves written on both sides), contains descriptions of rituals and astrological information on eclipses of the sun and moon as well as the cycles of Venus.
To my way of thinking, the Paris Codex, in France, is the most interesting since it deals with the Maya calendar and includes prophecies for various tuns and Katuns.
The Madrid Codex is the longest at 112 pages and is housed in Spain. Researchers believe it was put together quickly after the Spanish conquest.

Occasionally, hopelessly decayed codices are found in Maya ruins:

Given the rarity and importance of these books, rumors of finding new ones often develop interest. Archaeological excavations of Maya sites have turned up a number of rectangular lumps of plaster and paint flakes, most commonly in elite tombs. These lumps are the remains of codices where all the organic material has rotted away. A few of the more coherent of these lumps have been preserved, with the slim hope that some technique to be developed by future generations of archaeologists may be able to recover some information from these remains of ancient pages.

Maya Codices

Yucatan Travel links added to this blog site

Today I added a couple of links to this blog site. They will take you to websites dealing with Yucatan Travel:

a new blog site called, Yucatan Peninsula Travel
a website for a new travelogue DVD, Yucatan Travel: Cancun to Chichen Itza

I love to travel in Yucatan and have been there six times. My outstanding interest is always the quest for evidence that inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis visited Yucatan in millennia past. I have written about my experiences in my books When We Were Gods and Arrival of the Gods in Egypt.

While in Yucatan, I also began videotaping the many places we visited. These became the DVD travelogue Yucatan Travel: Cancun to Chichen Itza.

Those of us who made the Yucatan Travel DVD listed above decided to also start a blog about some of our favorite places in Yucatan. If you’ve been to that tropical paradise, we invite your comments, especially those that would be helpful to other travelers.

Videotaping Cenote Zaci in Valladolid Yucatan

: Carol Chapman videotaping Cenote Zaci in Valladolid, Yucatan

Here I’m filming footage to be used in a future movie on Yucatan. I’m perched at the rim of Cenote Zaci in Valladolid. A cenote is a sink hole down to underground water through the limestone shelf that makes the surface of northern Yucatan. Valladolid is one of my favorite places to visit in Yucatan.

Some artifacts in Mayan ruins discovered by using intuition

In yesterday’s post, I referred to August and Alice LePlongeon, explorers of the Mayan ruins in Yucatan. While we were in Yucatan filming the Yucatan Travel Movie, we visited Hacienda Chichen, the place where many of the original explorers of Chichen Itza stayed. There we learned of Alice Le Plongeon’s psychic talents and how she had found a Chac Moll buried deep in the ground purely by intuition.

Atlantis and the Yucatan Travel Movie

You may have noticed that I have written books on finding evidence of Atlanteans in Egypt and Yucatan. I’ve also made a movie, which is almost ready to be distributed, on Yucatan Travel. Atlantis and Yucatan Travel seem to be separate subjects. Here’s how it came about: It turned out that while I was doing research in Yucatan for the books, I couldn’t find DVDs to show me what to expect while traveling in Yucatan. As a result, I decided to videotape my experiences in Yucatan in the hopes of being helpful to other people who want to know what to expect. That’s how the Yucatan Travel Movie came about.

Our favorite breakfast restaurant in Cancun

Carol and John Chapman enjoying breakfast at our favorite Cancun breakfast restaurant

First, I took a photo of John sitting at the table. Then John took a photo of me sitting at the table. Then, I kinda, sorta put the two photos together in PhotoShop so it kinda, sorta looks like we’re both sitting at the table together at the same time. We actually were sitting at the table at the same time except when we took the photos of each other. This is where we had breakfast every morning outside at Natura Restaurant on Boulevard Kukulcan while in Cancun. They had marvelous omelets and fantastic service. Our corn tortillas are keeping warm in the woven basket with the colorful lid in the foreground. John’s favorite omelet was a Chihuahua omelet. Before you think that means a little dog rolled up in cooked eggs, let me assure you that the Chihuahua is actually Chihuahua cheese, which is similar to Monterey Jack cheese, and comes from the Mexican state of Chihuahua, just like the little dog. John also liked slices of nopal cactus (prickly pear cactus) accompanying his Chihuahua in his omelet. Not surprisingly, since it’s the city most people fly into when visiting Yucatan, Cancun is in the Yucatan Travel Movie.

My Favorite Restaurant in the World

Tea and a Purse Rack at El Meson del Marques, Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico

Not only is the food magnificent and the service supreme, but imagine that when you sit down, the waiter/waitress not only pulls out the seat for you to sit on, but also brings out the purse rack so you don’t have to put your pocketbook on the floor. My favorite meal? Guacamole made at the table and sopa de lima–a traditional Mayan chicken soup with strips of tortillas soaking in the broth and a slice of lime adding that certain special flavor. El Meson del Marques is in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico. It is a little-frequented gem that many tourists miss. But it is heavenly. It too is in the Yucatan Travel Movie.

Videotaping Zaci Cenote in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico

Carol Chapman videotaping Zaci Cenote in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico Photo by John Chapman

Here I am videotaping the cenote, or sinkhole, in Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico. This Valladolid cenote, called Zaci, is featured in the Yucatan Travel Movie. There are many of these sinkholes throughout the state of Yucatan and its nearby state of Quintana Roo. The fresh water within the cenotes provided water for the indigenous Mayan people, because the northern Yucatan Peninsula does not have rivers, streams, or lakes–no surface water. Rainwater trickles down through the limestone earth of the northern Yucatan Peninsula to form underwater rivers. The cenotes provide openings to the underwater rivers. I love the deep turquoise color of the water.

Cenote Swimmer in Yucatan

A swimmer enjoys Cenote Zaci in Valladolid, Yucatan.

Zaci Cenote appears in the Yucatan Travel Movie. Here, I am looking at a woman below me who is looking at a swimmer below her in the beautiful turquoise-green water of the cenote. Cenotes formed millions of years ago when sinkholes formed in the thick limestone surface exposing underground rivers below. This cenote, called “Zaci,” the original name of the city in which it is found, is in Valladolid, an inland city west of Cancun.

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