CBCNews article on the ancient Maya and 2012 exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto
Here’s an excerpt from a great article called, “Did the Maya predict the world would end in 2012? Archeologists say Maya made no such prophecy.” The article is from CBCNews. here:
Click on the link above and you’ll be taken to the original article, which is full of information on the ancient Maya and 2012. The article is announcing a Royal Ontario Museum exhibit on the topic.
Here’s the quote:
“In a correlation of the Maya’s long-count calendar to our Western one, the end of this current baktun, the 13th, happens on Dec. 21, 2012 (or Dec. 23. See sidebar).
“The long-count calendar counts the time since creation, which the Maya date to what we would call a day in August 3114 BC.
“Dec. 21 vs. Dec. 23
Dec, 21, 2012 seems to be the most favoured date for when the 13th baktun on the Maya long-count calendar ends. But some sources, including the Royal Ontario Museum, go with Dec. 23.“The two dates stem from two variations of the most used correlation of our calendar with the Maya’s.
“The ROM’s Justin Jennings said it went with Dec. 23 because, “there’s no evidence that the long count is linked to astronomical cycles” and the curators felt that Dec. 21 feeds into “2012 galactic alignment stuff, which just doesn’t hold water from an astronomy point of view and it does not work for classic Maya literature.”
“Maya expert David Stuart doesn’t care which date people choose but told CBC News that it is a complete coincidence that Dec. 21 will be the winter solstice. “Other baktun endings don’t really fall on important astronomical dates,” he noted.
“Obviously, baktuns have come and gone. This year just happens to be the one when the 13th baktun ends. The 12th baktun ended on Sept. 18, 1618, which was when Europe’s very destructive Thirty Years’ War was just getting started.
“Stuart writes that, “any such statements about the Maya predicting the world’s demise or alternatively, some ‘transformation of consciousness’ in 2012 is, to put it as simply and directly as possible, wrong.”
Did the Maya predict the world would end in 2012? Archeologists say Maya made no such prophecy
In this blog, I’ve written about David Stuart before. He is one of my heroes, because, by a wonderful set of circumstances, his parents were both archeologists and he spend part of his childhood with them at the Mayan ruin of Coba, which is within a half day’s drive from Cancun–I’ve been there twice, and I’ve included it my my travelogue, Yucatan Travel: Cancun to Chichen Itza.
From what I’ve read and seen about David Stuart, he had a Mayan nanny and so became prolific in Mayan. I remember seeing a Public Broadcasting Station special on deciphering the Mayan glyphs, in which David, at an early age–I think 16–was brilliantly decoding glyphs, helped by his fluency in present-day Mayan.
Continue readingOur favorite breakfast restaurant in Cancun
Carol and John Chapman enjoying breakfast at our favorite Cancun breakfast restaurant
Yucatan Peninsula Travel Movie Begins
Today I did a good first draft of the preview of the sequel to the Yucatan Travel Movie. It is called, Yucatan Peninsula Travel: From Merida to Palenque and will go deeper into the Yucatan than Yucatan Travel: Day Trips from Cancun.
Continue readingReserve Rooms Now: Hotel Discounters Price War
If you’re planning Yucatan Travel in the near future, you might want to check out the following Miami Herald article on price wars among hotel discounters. I reserved a number of Cancun hotel rooms, which were highlighted in the Yucatan Travel Movie, through online hotel discounters.
Four major hotel discounters and deal-finders are enjoying record popularity, all because of a substantial drop in both individual and group bookings at America’s hotels.
Fierce price war breaks out among hotel discounters
Beach Sand Replenishment at Cancun
A triangular strip of sand that looks like a number seven (7) attached to the the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula provides the world-reknown white sand beaches of Cancun’s hotel zone. Unfortunately, these beaches, so vital for the Yucatan tourism industry, were badly eroded during the devastating category five hurricane Wilma in 2005.
The Post-Bulletin says that:
As a result, local government started a $71-million beach restoration project in September 2009. Most of the work was done by the beginning of this year. All told, more than 1.3 billion gallons of sand was pumped from the ocean.
Travel Scene: Cancun Completes Beach Restoration
This is good.
The Yucatan Travel Movie visits Yucatan Peninsula travel locations within a day’s drive of Cancun.
Continue readingAkumal: Quieter than Cancun
If you’re heading to Cancun, with a view to enjoying the Maya Riviera, the following travel blog post suggests you head south to Akumal. The Yucatan Travel Movie includes footage of visits to both Cancun and the turquoise waters of Akumal.
For your next vacation, imagine flying into Cancun airport. After gathering your bags and taking your first few breaths of fresh Caribbean air, hail a taxi and, with a hint of pride in your voice, tell him to take you to Akumal. That’s right, instead of heading to the mother of all Mexican tourist destinations, you’ll be heading south to a quieter but no less lovely locale. You’ve decided to things differently, and that’s a very good thing.
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Yucatan Here I Come!
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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