A 17-year-old St. Xavier High School Senior from the Louisville Kentucky area won a $16,000 academic and “travel adventure” scholarship for a project that included a musical composition, played on violin, about the Yucatan Peninsula.
The application process included creating a project related to this year’s expedition. William wrote a musical piece called “The Battle for the Yucatan Peninsula,” or “La Batalla por Peninsula Yucatan.”
Achiever: William Thompson-Arjona | St. X student wins travel scholarship to Spain
His travel scholarship includes a trip to Spain and then to Yucatan to follow the path of the Conquistadors. In the online Courier-Journal.com newspaper article, William Thompson-Arjona describes the three attempts the Spanish made to conquer the Yucatan.
In the Yucatan Travel Movie, we go to Valladolid, a delightful colonial town that tourists seldom visit. Today it is a peaceful place but in the 1800s, it was the place where the Caste War began. In the Caste War, the Yucatecans tried to throw off the yoke of the Spanish conquerers . . . and almost succeeded.
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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
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.
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Today I visited a theater to see if it would be a good fit for the premier of the Yucatan Travel Movie. I felt happy to see that the Beta version of the movie looked good on the much larger-than-my-TV screen. In fact, it looked great! I also felt happy and grateful that the manager of the theater kept watching and watching the video, entranced by the movie, long after we’d established that the movie looked and sounded good on her projector. The Yucatan Travel Movie should be ready in a month.
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Spanish author Javier Negrete locates his fictional Atlantis on the Greek island of Santorini, where, many believe, the largest volcanic eruption in human history occurred. In Negrete’s Atlantida (Atlantis in Greek), he interweaves the story of the destruction of this Santorini Atlantis with our present-day situation, in which we stand on the brink of another possible Atlantis-like destruction.
FIRA, Greece – Spanish writer Javier Negrete explores people’s fascination with natural disasters in “Atlantida” (Atlantis), a novel that transplants the tale of that mythical submerged civilization to the modern day.
Spanish Novelist Transplants Atlantis Myth to Modern Day in New Book – Latin American Herald Tribune
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Well, it looks like it’s happened again! Someone has found Atlantis! This time, they’re sure they really found the mysterious lost city. We’ll see. They do have some intriguing photographs!
There are so many claims that Atlantis has finally been found.
According to the article excerpted below, even Google Maps mappers thought they had found the underwater streets of the lost city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa until they realized that their mapping boat had made the marks.
A group of ‘undersea archaeologists’ have become the latest to claim they have uncovered the lost city of Atlantis.
The scientists – who have refused to identify themselves – have released a series of images taken beneath the Caribbean.
They insist the snaps show what appear to be the ruins of a city that could pre-date Egypt’s pyramids, which appeared after 2600BC.
From Cancun, you can find many destinations of interest, such as Playa del Carmen and Isla Cozumel as well as the ancient Mayan ruins at Tulum and Coba. The Yucatan Travel Movie shows what you can expect when you visit these locations. For example, do you know that the ancient Mayan ruins at Tulum are on a cliff overlooking some of the best beaches on the Maya Riviera? Or, that many people come to Coba for the birdwatching, rather than the ruins?
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Here’s a link to an article containing excellent details for travelling safely in Mexico:
http://www.kswt.com/global/story.asp?s=12140490
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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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Take a look at this article about magnificent ancient sculptures judged on a level with ancient Italian and Greek artwork. I love how, so often, explorers attribute their finds to having come from the lost continent of Atlantis, especially when they don’t know who created the works of art.
When the German explorer Leo Frobenius went on an expedition to West Africa 100 years ago and discovered beautiful terracotta sculptures and brass heads from Ife, he thought he had found Plato’s lost city of Atlantis.
Majesty, Serenity and Suffering from Ife’s Golden Age