Yucatan travel movie | Carol Chapman

Mayan Long Count Calendar date is far beyond 2012

I am delighted to discover a corroboration of a Mayan Long Count Calendar date recorded on a tall stone slab called a stele. This date is on a particular stele called Stele One at the Mayan ruin in Coba. While videotaping footage for the Yucatan Travel Movie, we spent considerable time filming Stele One, and trying to get it right, whether the date on it was 4.1 billion, billion, billion years into the future or 4.1 billion, billion, billion, billion years into the future (3 or 4 billion years). The following excerpt from Wikipedia’s 2012 Phenomenon article states definitively that it was actually 41 octillion years in the future, or perhaps, an equal distance of time into the past. Ho hm, these confusing Mayan glyphs! Anyway, I am delighted to discover that we at least got the stele right, and the 4.1 (or 41) of the date correct.

Another example is Stele 1 at Coba, which gives a date of 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, or twenty units above the b’ak’tun, placing it either 4.134105 × 1028 (41 octillion) years in the future,[26] or an equal distance in the past.[38] This date is 3 quintillion times the age of the universe as determined by cosmologists.
~ 2012 Phenomenon

Stele One also has a date on it that alludes to December 21, 2012.

Mayan Shamans give 2012 interviews

Mayan Shaman attend a Sacred Ceiba Tree during an equinox ceremony

Mayan Shamans attend a Sacred Ceiba Tree during an equinox ceremony near the Chichen Itza archeological zone. Photo courtesy Miriam Balsley

While filming the Yucatan Travel Movie: Cancun to Chichen Itza, I had the opportunity to interview a number of Mayan Shamans. These, and other, interviews will be the foundation of my October 26 PowerPoint Presentation at the Edgar Cayce Forum at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Geese are flying north!

I live in southeastern Virginia, and the last couple of days, poignant calls of Canada geese have periodically filled the sky as they fly in “V” formation overhead.

They are flying north. So, if you live north of here, know that the geese are on the way. Spring is coming!

I will miss them. Videotaped images of the geese floating at sunrise on a local river form part of my company, SunTopaz‘s, video logo at the beginning of the Yucatan Travel Movie.

Lunch with Melinda McKenzie, oboe-playing expert

Today I had lunch with Melinda McKenzie, who provided the wonderful oboe music in my video Yucatan Travel Movie. It was great to get caught up with her. She’s a great story-teller. I laughed and laughed.

Mayan shamans and 2012

While filming the Yucatan Travel Movie: Cancun to Chichen Itza, I wondered what the Maya had to say about 2012. After all, it is a Mayan prophecy that originated all the ruckus about December 21, 2012. Therefore, while shooting video footage for the movie, I also interviewed every-day Maya and Mayan shamans. These interviews became the nucleus of my upcoming presentation for the Edgar Cayce Forum on Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Mayan village in Mexico impacted by climate change

Whenever I’ve been in Yucatan, the last three times, while filming the Yucatan Travel Movie, I assumed I could barely stand the mid-day heat because, well … because Yucatan is in the tropics and I’m not used to that kind of heat being from a temperate climate.

However, to my surprise, I recently found an online article at Yahoo News saying that the indigenous people of the area, the Maya, are also finding the climate hotter than normal. In the article, MAYAN VILLAGE IN MEXICO IMPACTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE, a woman says that farmers are no longer able to work in their fields in the heat of the noonday sun. Their main staple crop, corn, is stunted because of the continuing drought. Strangely, not only are the summers hotter, but also the winters are also colder.

Inspirational quote from oboe player

“You can’t save people from themselves.”
~ Melinda McKenzie

Melinda is a marvelous musician and music teacher who provided oboe playing for one of “Prayer, Duet, and Dance,” one of the musical numbers used as background music in the Yucatan Travel Movie.

Inspirational Quote on how to overcome perfectionism

“I have learned that there is not time in these days in life to make things perfect. Good enough almost always works just as well and no one knows the difference except you.”
~ Miriam Balsley

Miriam Balsley is the co-writer, narrator, and hostess of the Yucatan Travel Movie. She knows how to get things done.

Inspirational Quote from Movie Musician

A great inspirational quote from my friend Melinda McKenzie, who beautifully plays the oboe in “Prayer, Duet, and Dance,” a composition for piano or organ and oboe by Deborah L. Carr. I used part of this delightful and magnificent piece as background music in my movie Yucatan Travel: Cancun to Chichen Itza. The “dance” part of the composition is a tango – fantastic for giving a Spanish flair to a movie set in Mexico.

Here’s the inspirational quotation from Melinda:

You can’t save people from themselves.

Isn’t that great!

Sarah Albee at Book ‘Em Waynesboro 2010

Sarah Albee, New York Times Best Selling author of children’s books, her latest: Poop Happened!, also attended Book ‘Em at Waynesboro, Virginia last weekend. I enjoyed her delightful presentation called, “The Scoop on Poop” where I learned how knights in armor pooped and how astronauts poop – great stuff of great interest. If you read my October 13th post, you know that I videotaped many Yucatan bathrooms when filming Yucatan Travel because I have a fascination with beautiful tiled Mexican bathrooms. No, the bathrooms did not make it into the travel documentary. Sarah graciously posed with me for the following photo:

Carol Chapman (left) with New York Times Best Selling children's author Sarah Albee at Book 'Em in Waynesboro, Virginia, on October 16, 2010

Tag Archive