Today’s and yesterday’s . . . and tomorrow’s . . . Yucatan Travel Movie editing time will be spent on Izamal, one of my favorite destinations in the Mexican state of Yucatan. Not only does this beautiful colonial city have the highest pyramid in the state of Yucatan, but also, it has a gorgeous historical convent, the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary. Izamal also used to be the headquarters of the ancient Maya creator god, Izamna. I love the place. It’s beautiful and it is sacred ground.
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Ek Balam, Mayan for “Black Jaguar,” took center stage for editing in the Yucatan Travel Movie today. Ek Balam is such a fascinating place. Absolutely amazing that its pyramid has a tomb in it . . . and, you enter the tomb via the huge mouth of a giant carved monstrous image of a god’s mouth. Not that we tourists are allowed inside the tomb. But, we can look into the monster mouth, past its huge curved teeth and also be impressed by the monster god’s huge eyes, the lids of which are held up by people carved in stone. I find the two men with wings the most intriguing. What were they? Angels?
Also, this tomb is not under the structure as it Palenque, but 2/3 up the edifice. It makes me wonder if other pyramids have tombs hidden within them.
Reviewing the footage brought me back to that very hot day in January a year ago when we visited this wondrous site that is relatively free of tourists. Perhaps few tourists come here because they are all at nearby Chichen Itza.
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While editing the Mexico Travel Movie today, I put together scenes describing the interesting and historically significant Yucatan city of Valladolid. It is about mid-way between Cancun and Merida, the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatan.
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This is the week of the “gathering of the clans” to work on the Yucatan Travel Movie and also the book about our adventures in Yucatan.
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So many decisions to make. Whether to put this event here or there. Whether to use this event or not. How much to leave it, how much to throw out. I’m worn out. Time to rest for the day!
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After a year of travel to many wonderful speaking engagements, I am happy that I can be home for a while and make some progress on my Yucatan Travel Movie.
Carol Chapman
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Last night, we visited our friend Victor Olalde. He had been our guide in Chichen Itza a year ago. He always knows a lot and shares with us.
I’m looking for an image of Izamna, the Maya equivalent of Christ – son of the creator god, Hunab K’u. Victor said we would find the image carved on the east wall of the Nunnery building beyond the Observatory at the Chichen Itza ruins.
We woke early, checked out of the hotel and headed to the ruins. it was strange to walk along the entrance path and NOT see any craft vendors. Some were setting their stalls up but none approached us to buy their wares. It felt good.
We knew, from our Moon handbook, that the Nunnery Building would be a long walk on this huge site, which is traditionally known as Itzamna’s ceremonial center.
We finally got to the building and saw the carving over the doorway just as Victor had said. Only a couple of German tourists shared the space with us. I set up my video camera on its tripod so I would be sure to get the image without any camera movement.
After a couple of minutes, an ancient Mayan guard turned up and told me I could not use a tripod. So, I took the camera off the tripod, telescoped the tripod legs and took the rest of my footage. The old guard also said the image was not Itzamna. I don’t know who to believe – Victor or the old guard.
We also quickly took footage to illustrate information I’d learned in the archives of Hacienda Chichen yesterday – that August Le Plongeon had excavated the Platforma de Venus. We also photographed and videotaped the chac mool that I believe Alice Le Plongeon, his wife, found with her psychic powers. Did I tell you that Alice also had memories of Atlantis and that was one of the reasons the Le Plongeons were in Chichen Itza . . . because they thought the site had an association with the lost continent.
At 10, we had an appointment with Jose at Hacienda Chichen. Miriam is considering being a volunteer with local Maya people for a month or so, which the Hacienda arranges. Jose is not only an elder-in-training, but also the head of their volunteer program.
He told us that he is presently too young to be consider as an elder. You can only be an elder after the age of 52.
Jose took us to his village where we saw children in the local school, the room where they ate and the infirmary associated with the school. The school meal area has been improved by Belisa Barancache, the “keeper” of Hacienda Chichen.
I loved the beautiful children’s inquisitive eyes. The little ones crowded around the back of the video camera to see the moving image being recorded.
My favorite part of the tour with Jose was a visit to a very traditionally Maya village in which women, in a business cooperative, were making the beautifully embroidered traditional white dresses called huiptil on sewing machines outside under the protection of a roof of a building in the village center. They spoke in Mayan. I asked to take their “photographia . . . OK?” They nodded.
I got some great pictures of some lovely women. I feel so happy to have seen the women – about a dozen of them – drawing the patterns on the cloth and then embroidering the design in bright colors on their sewing machines.
Carol Chapman
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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