Here’s a great site with wonderful info on travel in the Yucatan, especially the Maya Riviera and Cancun:
Mexico’s tourism business is still recovering from the swine flu scare and is now being hit again by reports of drug-fueled violence.
The good news is with the number of visitors not yet back to pre-scare levels, travelers can still find great experiences at reasonable rates.
Cancun Mexico: Mayan Riviera Dining Review
He mentions places we visit in the Yucatan Travel Movie: Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Cozumel.
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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.
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I enjoyed this YouTube video which combines the music of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Schaherazade with intriguing sketches drawn by Frederick Catherwood used as illustrations in John L. Stephens’s Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, published in 1843. I enjoying seeing some of the ruins I had visited while filming the Yucatan Travel Movie such as the palace at Sayil. Compared to the sketch of the unexcavated ruin which appears to be semi-buried under a hill of dirt, the present-day ruin is lovely.
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan YouTube Video
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Really happy today because the audio tracks on the Yucatan Travel Movie are almost all finished and well balanced at last. I’m just waiting for Miriam Balsley, the narrator, to arrive next week to add a little bit to the narration.
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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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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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