Last fall, more than 18 million viewers a week watched CBS's "Survivor: Guatemala--The Maya Empire," as contestants lived amid the age-old ruins.
At Mon Aimee Chocolate in the Strip District, customers each Saturday line up for the shop's special hot chocolate--spiced with cayenne, chiles or cinnamon--just as it was served by the ancient Mayans, who invented the decadent brew.
And tourism at Mayan ruins is surging.
6 comments:
Writerfella here --
Great! Let them go re-discover the Maya and their vast civilization. But, shh!, don't tell them that the Kiowa are also Mayans who survived the destruction of their parent culture. Notice that Mel Gibson brought his APOCALYPTO to Oklahoma first, and that his main character star is Comanche-Cree. Kiowas would prefer to be allowed to go and see the film as just another part of the audience, as it is as much a part of their history as The Battle of The Little Washita, where they missed taking our Custer - by THAT much!
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Writerfella here --
CORRECTION: "...missed taking out Custer - by THAT much!"
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
The article reminds me of the time I was in Cancun and took a day trip to Chichen Itza. My group climbed the pyramid of Kukulkán and almost stepped on a bunch of new agers holding some kind of ritual at the top. They looked like a bunch of old hippies that had lost their way and seemed really annoyed with our presence. Unfortunately for them we were very boisterous and excited about climbing to the top as they kept trying to shush us. Other than the unpleasant hippies I highly recommend this tour, it is something to behold!
I took this picture the day before the spring equinox at Chichén Itzá. Unfortunately, our lame-o tour forced us to stay another day when we wanted to go on to Cancún. Fortunately, we got to see the annual equinox display.
You can see more Maya photos on my Photo Gallery page.
Writerfella here --
Did ya know that particular pyramid allows you to see the sinuous winged shadow of Kukulkan 'crawl' down the stairway as the sun sinks into late afternoon and early evening? Never been there myself but I've seen a fast-motion film of the effect. What kind of optical physics/math equations would it take to engineer such an illusion?
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
Yes, that's what I was referring to when I mentioned the "display." The sun illuminates the diamonds on the back of the serpent (rattlesnake) that borders one of the staircases.
I'm sure setting this up required many painstaking engineering calculations and experiments. As with the pyramids of Egypt, it undoubtedly took centuries, if not millennia, to get the details right.
Post a Comment