Chichen Itza headed two different ways?

From an article on artdaily.org:

Chichen Itza Gets Greener
MEXICO CITY.- With the planting of 3,000 endemic trees, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) concluded reforestation of vulnerable areas at Chichen Itza Archaeological Zone, in Yucatan, with the aim of counteracting deforestation at the Maya site, caused by natural events such as draught. The forestation program was developed with the support of the National Defense Ministry (SEDENA), which donated 4,000 endemic trees such as mahogany, cedar, flamboyant and pich, being the last specie characteristic of the region.

Archaeologist Ricardo Nafate Lopez, responsible of the project, informed that this labor is part of the minor maintenance program of the site. “The most endangered zones have been reforested”. From the total of donated trees, 3,000 were planted, keeping the rest to be planted in 2010. Seed was sowed as well to recover a larger number of trees. Among the green areas repopulated outstands the path that conducts from the Observatory to the Initial Series Conjunct, as well as the route that leads from the main access to the Camp, the Main Esplanade and the Great Leveling, where 300 trees were planted, attended by a reliable irrigation system. These areas are the most visited, so grass is to be rehabilitated as well.

From a post by ejalbright on American Egypt:

Multi-billion peso tourist development slated for Chichen Itza, vendors claim
A giant resort complex, with a convention center, 5-star hotels, golf courses, gift shops, and artificial lakes, is planned for property near Chichen Itza, according to leaders of the vendors who invade the archaeological zone each day to sell trinkets to tourists.

La Jornada, a Mexican newspaper, reports that leaders of the vendors claimed to have received information that a consortium of Chinese, Canadian, and French corporations were working with Yucatan to design a resort complex that would begin construction in 2010. Investment in the project is estimated at $2 billion (Mexican), roughly $154million dollars U.S.

The reporter contacted state authorities who said they had no knowledge of the project.

Villevaldo Moo Pech y Silvia Cime Mex, leaders of the several hundred vendors, said they learned of the development from highly placed sources, but said they did not know the names of the companies involved. However, the project is coordinated by the office of Governor Ivonne Ortega Pacheco through the state Sistema para el Financiamiento (the state office of Finance). According to the article, the project must be approved by a three-quarters majority of the state Legislature.

The leaders of the vendors believe that a project of this magnitude will negatively affect their constituents as well as directly affect the archaeological zone of Chichen Itza, which is the patrimony of the Maya. Pech Moo and Cime Mex have requested information from the state government, but have received no answers, they said.

Read more...

Bonefishing in Ascension Bay and Bocapaila, Yucatan, Mexico.

From Pesca May Lodge:

With out any doubt, the great bonefishing pleasure is to spot the fish, cast, strip, see the fish following, fill the bite, set the hook and listen your reel scream while bonefish pulls your line, stronger, pound per pound, than most fish.

It sounds simple but it takes angler best skills to catch bonefish. Your eyes have to learn to read the water, flashes, waves, moog, birds, manta ray, sharks and many other signs. Your cast will make your fly go for 30 feet and land nice and smooth at the right place, the proper stripping and sensitivity to fill the fish and set the hook with your hand, not lifting the rod.

Read more...

Riviera Maya marketing office launches consumer Website & social media campaign

From an article on Travel Video News:

Riviera Maya, Mexico (November, 2009) - The Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office announced today the launch of a new website and social media platform, Hola Riviera Maya. Targeted to the US market, Hola Riviera Maya will serve as an online resource for travelers interested in visiting the incredible destination of Riviera Maya. With the additional support of social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook, Hola Riviera Maya will keep visitors apprised of all news, happenings and events taking place in one of Mexico’s most sought after tourist destinations.

“Over the past few months, we have closely monitored various social media networks and discovered many comments related to Riviera Maya,” says Javier Aranda, General Director of the Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office. “We realized there was a tremendous opportunity to utilize social media and engage an audience of loyal customers as well as potential travelers. We hope that through Hola Riviera Maya, we will provide our visitors and future visitors with useful information about our beloved destination.”

Travelers are invited to log onto www.holarivieramaya.com, visit the official Facebook page of the destination or follow Riviera Maya on Twitter @holarivieramaya to receive daily updates on news and happenings throughout the destination, last-minute travel deals, special contests and a plethora of useful information and exclusive content to better prepare them for an upcoming trip to Riviera Maya.

Read more...

Artifacts shed light on the common Maya

From an article by Tom Avril in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

The writings and illustrations of the ancient Maya civilization have told us primarily about the elite classes and religion, with rich depictions of headdress-wearing kings and mystical jaguars and bats.

Scenes of everyday life from the Central American people, on the other hand, are largely unknown - until now.

A University of Pennsylvania scholar is part of a team that is deciphering newly discovered murals in Mexico, with images of commoners handling maize, clay vessels, and salt.

Separately, scientists have extracted new information from Maya artifacts that have been in Penn's collection for decades - for example, analyzing ceramic pots for traces of ritual chocolate-based beverages.

The various findings are a reminder that when an object is unearthed, the science of archaeology has only just begun, says Elin C. Danien, curator of "Painted Metaphors," a Maya exhibit running through Jan. 31 at Penn's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Academics have spent more than a century studying this advanced civilization, which flourished for ages in what are now called Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras, yet much remains unknown.

"I'm fond of saying that archaeology is a never-ending detective story," Danien says. "As soon as you get one answer, it raises 10 more questions."

(One thing that is known, by the way: The Mayans did not predict the end of the world in 2012, contrary to the suggestion in the new movie by that name.)

The new murals found in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, reported this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are said to be more than 1,300 years old. Alongside the scenes of everyday life are hieroglyphs that describe what's going on.

Some of the glyphs have never been seen before by modern eyes and thus are helping scholars to broaden their knowledge of the ancient language, says Simon Martin, an associate curator at the Penn museum.

These written symbols were previously unknown because they refer to common things, such as salt, not seen in the usual illustrations of royalty or gods, says Martin, one of the authors of the research in Proceedings.

"Salt doesn't turn up when they're talking about kings and queens," he says.

Read more...

Chiapas looks to expand global market for its coffee

From an article on TheNews.com.mx:

Tapachula, Chiapas., 17 Nov. (Notimex) .- Organizations of the social and private sectors have formed a common front to seek alternatives for selling Chiapas coffee in international markets and attracting foreign investment, coffee leaders reported.

The director of the Indigenous Ecological Federation of Chiapas (FIECH), Edgar Flores Miguel, said it is necessary to invest in the sector to expand growth, taking into consideration that the state is now third in organic coffee production in the world.

To continue with the expansion of the cultivation of coffee, Chiapas requires credits for the current cycle of at least $180 million dollars but the Cafe Financial (Fancafé) has little ability to raise 50 million, so there is a lack of funding, he said.

In this regard, the general coordinator of the Maya Organic Organizations Network, Jorge Aguilar Reyna, said producer representatives will travel to Japan to seek to
position Chiapas coffee and penetrate that market.

"Coffee is not only important to attract resources for Mexico, but it also protects the environment, generating development, social stability and emigration stops. If the crops remain profitable, more than one 1.1 million Chiapas residents benefit," he noted.

Read more...

Mexico's 'giant underwater museum'

From a story by Dhruti Shah on BBC News:

Visitors to a national park in Cancun could soon come face-to-face with life-sized sculptures in human form fixed in the seabed, as plans to create what could be the world's largest underwater museum start to become a reality.

On 19 November, four sculptures are due to be submerged in the Caribbean waters, off the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico's south-eastern state of Quintana Roo.

They will be the first of many hundreds of figures, which will be dotted around an area of the region's national park.

The sculptures will be made of PH-neutral concrete, which, it is hoped, will attract algae and marine life and give the local ecosystem a boost.

According to the park's director Jaime Gonzalez, one of the aims is to reduce the pressure on the natural habitat in other areas of the park by luring tourists away from existing coral reef, which has suffered damage from hurricanes and human activity.

Some 750,000 people visit the park a year, said Mr Gonzalez, with about 450,000 of them visiting Punta Nizuc, an area of just four hectares.

Link to another post with more on the sculptures.

Read more...

Coastal habitats may sequester 50 times more carbon than tropical forests by area

"I took a journalist interested in mangroves into a small lagoon where juvenile sharks could be found. Instead of finding sharks, we found a backhoe dredging a large sand spit across the lagoon. The work was being done without sediment traps and as we later found out, without permits. One mangrove shoot stood in the eventual path of the backhoe and I decided to get a shot of it standing tall - both condemned and yet defiant to the bitter end." Photo and explanation by Matthew D Potenski, MDP Photography/Marine Photobank.

From an article by Jeremy Hance on Mongabay.com:

Highly endangered coastal habitats are incredibly effective in sequestering carbon and locking it away in soil, according to a new paper in a report by the IUCN. The paper attests that coastal habitats—such as mangroves, sea grasses, and salt marhses—sequester as much as 50 times the amount of carbon in their soil per hectare as tropical forest.

"The key difference between these coastal habitats and forests is that mangroves, seagrasses and the plants in salt marshes are extremely efficient at burying carbon in the sediment below them where it can stay for centuries or even millennia. Tropical forests are not as effective at transferring carbon into the soil below them, instead storing most carbon in the living plants and litter," explains the paper's author and Conservation International’s Marine Climate Change Director, Dr. Emily Pidgeon. "But coastal ecosystems keep sequestering large amounts of carbon throughout their life cycle. Equally, the majority of carbon stays locked away in the soil rather than the plant, so only a relatively small amount is released when the plant dies."

This capacity for coastal environments to lock away carbon for thousands of years has largely been ignored in accounts of the global carbon cycle, according to the paper, even though the amount of carbon they are responsible for storing is very high.

Coastal habitats with vegetation "[contribute] about half of the total carbon sequestration in ocean sediments even though they account for less than 2 percent of the ocean surface,” Pidgeon writes, explaining that much of this is capacity is due to the fact that coastal vegetation usually spreads deeper below ground than it grows above with some plants going as deep as eight meters.

Read more...

2012: Six end-of-the-world myths debunked

From an article by Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News:

The end of the world is near—December 21, 2012, to be exact—according to theories based on a purported ancient Maya prediction and fanned by the marketing machine behind the soon-to-be-released 2012 movie.

But could humankind really meet its end in 2012—drowned in apocalyptic floods, walloped by a secret planet, seared by an angry sun, or thrown overboard by speeding continents?

And did the ancient Maya—whose empire peaked between A.D. 250 and 900 in what is now Mexico and Central America—really predict the end of the world in 2012?

At least one aspect of the 2012, end-of-the-world hype is, for some people, all too real: the fear.

NASA's Ask an Astrobiologist Web site, for example, has received thousands of questions regarding the 2012 doomsday predictions—some of them disturbing, according to David Morrison, senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute.

"A lot of [the submitters] are people who are genuinely frightened," Morrison said.

"I've had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn't want to be around when the world ends," he said. "Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn't have to suffer through the end of the world."

Fortunately, with the help of scientists like Morrison, most of the predicted 2012 cataclysms are easily explained away.

2012 MYTH 1
Maya Predicted End of the World in 2012

The Maya calendar doesn't end in 2012, as some have said, and the ancients never viewed that year as the time of the end of the world, archaeologists say.

But December 21, 2012, (give or take a day) was nonetheless momentous to the Maya.

"It's the time when the largest grand cycle in the Mayan calendar—1,872,000 days or 5,125.37 years—overturns and a new cycle begins," said Anthony Aveni, a Maya expert and archaeoastronomer at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

Read more...

Beyond Cancun: Discovering a Deeper Green Get-Away at CESiaK

From a post by Jessica Root on Treehugger.com:

When my boyfriend had surprised me with two round-trip tickets to Cancun for my birthday, let's just say I was surprised. He's in school for a Masters of Science in Environmental Management. I like to wax poetic about the benefits of ecotourism. Cancun, the infamous Spring break destination (thanks, MTV!) known for over-developed hotel strips, excessive water usage and lackadaisical waste management hardly makes it to any greenie's get-away list.

Little did I know that Cancun, home to the Yucatan Peninsula's main airport, would merely serve as our portal to the peninsula's off-the-beaten track beauty and tropical paradise like that discovered within Centro Ecologico Sian Ka'an (CESiaK).

The gem of a mid-sized beach resort is located south of Maya Tulum's hotel zone, just beyond the bumpy, dirt road entrance of the Sian Kaan Biosphere--the largest protected area (around 1.3 million acres) in the Mexican Caribbean. This also happens to be a declared World Heritage Site by the United Nation's UNESCO program.

Off-the-Grid Paradise
Within CESiaK we found a completely off of the grid paradise, powered up by wind and solar, equipped with composting toilets and a rainwater harvesting system providing the water used for bathing and brushing teeth.

The charming, private cabanas (bedroom-sized tents covered by palm-thatched roofs) dispersed through the property's snaking, jungle paths are elevated on stilts, providing roomy travel paths for iguanas, hermit crabs and blue crabs making their homes in the area adjacent to the Caribbean Sea's coastline.

Read more...

Declaration calls for more wilderness protected areas to combat global warming

From an article by Jeremy Hance on Mongabay.com:

Meeting this week in Merida, Mexico, the 9th World Wilderness Congress (WILD9) has released a declaration that calls for increasing wilderness protections in an effort to mitigate climate change. The declaration, which is signed by a number of influential organizations, argues that wilderness areas—both terrestrial and marine—act as carbon sinks, while preserving biodiversity and vital ecosystem services.

Entitled the Merida Message, the declaration put forth by the Chairman and Executive Committee of WILD9, describes the humanity's current situation as such: "runaway carbon emissions are driving the climate towards irreversible tipping points; we are contaminating our planet with pervasive toxicity, destroying the diversity of life on our planet, exhausting freshwater supplies and causing acidification in our oceans, and over-exploiting our oceans, causing fisheries to collapse. As a result, we are deepening poverty, weakening social structures and threatening global security."

Read more...

International League of Conservation Photographers

The International League of Conservation Photographers: Trailer
from The WILD Foundation on Vimeo.

The ILCP is a project-driven organization. Our mission is to translate conservation science into compelling visual messages targeted to specific audiences. We work with leading scientists, policy makers, government leaders and conservation groups to produce the highest-quality documentary images of both the beauty and wonder of the natural world and the challenges facing it.

The unique set of skills, talent and years of field experience spent documenting delicate and complex environmental subjects as well as a real commitment to conserve the landscapes, people and wildlife in the places where they work, is what sets the photographers of the ILCP apart. From poaching to global warming, from habitat loss to cultural erosion, from sustainability to biological corridors, the work of conservation photographers covers the entire range of threats to biodiversity and is indeed a critical component in the conservation toolbox.

Our mission is to further environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography.

We believe that awe-inspiring photography is a powerful force for the environment, especially when paired with the collaboration of committed scientists, politicians, religious leaders and policy makers. We plan to replace environmental indifference with a new culture of stewardship and passion for our beautiful planet.

Read more...

Endangered species in the Yucatán

The BBC's site has stunning photos highlighting threatened wildlife in the Yucatan Peninsula in Central America.

(Sorry; copyright laws prohibit posting them here, but they're worth a click on the link above.)

Read more...

Astonishing consensus on reefs -- Just save them

From an article on Underwater Times:

CORVALLIS, Oregon -- One of the first set of studies to examine what tourists and recreation enthusiasts actually think about coral reef ecosystems suggests they are a rare exception to controversies over human use versus environmental conservation – their stunning beauty is so extraordinary that almost everyone wants them protected in perpetuity.

That core belief is often strong enough that if it means people have to be kept out, so be it.

The analysis, done in Hawaii by researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Hawaii, found that most people visiting the state's coral reef ecosystems care deeply about these areas and very much enjoy visiting them, but will generally endorse whatever amount of management is needed to protect them.

"It was really quite astonishing, almost shocking how much people wanted this resource protected for its own sake," said Mark Needham, an assistant professor of forest ecosystems and society at OSU. "We fish and hunt wildlife for food or sport, we cut trees for timber. In most natural resource issues, we find conflicts over management for economic value versus environmental preservation or protection, but we really didn't see that here.

Read more...

Fly fishing in México

From a post on Maine Outdoor Journal:

I'm in a fishing village in the Yucatan Peninsula, my time here has been wonderful, six months and counting.....the place is called Punta Allen, and the lodge is ¨Cuzan¨. You´ll find it at the very end of the road along the coast of the Riviera.

The little town has many things to offer, including fresh lobster, a reef barrier for snorkeling and many fish in the mangroves to catch and release.

Read more...

Mayan Riviera: Antidote to island boredom

From an article by Chris Haslam on TimesOnline (UK):

From where I’m sitting, this could be Barbados. The sun is high in a cloudless sky, the sea is brochure-blue and the sand is the stuff of dreams.

It’s that special time of day, the moment just after breakfast when you remember, deliciously, that you have no obligations other than loafing in the shade of a rustling coco palm and wonder whether it’s too early to start drinking.

From where I’m slumped in my hammock, I can see a pair of Italian air hostesses rubbing factor five into each other’s shoulders, a trio of pelicans diving for fish and a smiling waiter coming to see if I’ve made my mind up about that drink.

If this were Barbados, or virtually any other island in the Caribbean, I would be looking forward to nothing more than a gentle swim, a long lunch, an afternoon nap, cocktails, dinner, and so to bed in the certain knowledge that tomorrow was going to be exactly the same as today.

Because while the Leewards and the Windwards are perfectly lovely for the body, they offer little unction for the mind and soul. So the only real option, after you’ve done the island tour, visited the fish market and wandered around the pastel-painted historic capital, is to start drinking earlier and earlier each day in a bid to stave off the creeping feeling that you’ve flown 3,000 miles to be, well, bored.

There, I’ve said it. Boredom. Ennui. Tedium. Monotony.

Another drink, sir? Not before breakfast — ah, what the hell. But winter sun doesn’t have to be that way. Now the pandemic panic has passed, all you need to do is fly a little further, to the strip of Mexico’s Caribbean coastline they call the Mayan Riviera, and you’ll find the same perfect beaches, turquoise seas and bronzed Italian air hostesses, along with gastronomy, history and culture in spades.

Read more...

Maya Rainforest: Second largest rainforest on the planet

From an article by Jacqueline Jones in The Barbados Advocate:

The Mesoamerica’s Maya Rainforest, otherwise known as Selva Maya in Spanish, or Maya Rainforest for short, is the second largest rainforest on the planet. It is a massive expanse of dense tropical flora, fauna, species of animal and insects, which while it is mainly spread across Mexico, stretches outside Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula (south-eastern Mexico which separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico) borders, into Guatemala and Belize. In short, it is 13.3 million acres of rainforest, mangrove, savannah and wetland. Amazing!

This rainforests is often a buzz of activity, as along with the thousands of species of plant-life, there are 400 species of bird, five species of large cats, including the puma and jaguar, sea turtles and even endangered species like the howler monkey, just to name a small portion of what exists here.

The sometimes forgotten rainforest isn’t just home to animal and plants however. Co-existing within the forest’s impressive diversity of species and ecosystems, there is a culturally diverse population of over six million, from the 13 linguistic groups of the indigenous Mayan people. These peoples bring their own flair to the rainforest, as their thousands of years old histories, can be easily seen through their archaeological remnants.

This little piece of ecological wonder has not been spared from the effects of climate change and the effects can be seen through various occurrences. One of these are the dried up Chicozapote trees, which once abundantly dripped chicle, which is a natural gum that is traditionally used to make chewing gum. This has caused a dent in the finances of the peoples of the forest, as this was a means of income. Another financial setback comes in the form of the Mahogany, the cost of which has plummeted drastically, due to the fallen trunks scattered across the forest floor and subsequent easy access to the material.

In light of all this, it is difficult to envision tourist activities and urban life buzzing within and outside the forest's borders, containing any similarity to the jungle, but it is this very forest that supplies water to all of the 3.3 million inhabitants of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is in short, their lifeline.

Read more...

Campeche, the spirit of Mexico

From an article by Sophie Cook in The Guaradian (UK):

While Mexico's tourist resorts are still reeling post swine flu, the beguiling city of Campeche and its surrounds is as enchanting as ever.

Mangroves and lagoons stretch along the northern half of Mexico's Campeche coast, home to countless flamingoes, while to the south the narrow bands of white sand beaches have always been cordoned off for turtles, not tourists. In the aftermath of the swine flu outbreak, Cancún, on the opposite side of the Yucatan peninsula, has been missing its usual planeloads of holidaymakers. But Campeche has never courted vast numbers of visitors and, while welcoming the few that come, can get by just fine without them. Lacking the Yucatan east coast's turquoise seas and sweeping beaches, this ruggedly beautiful western coast epitomises independent spirit. It's certainly safe again to bring your body here for healing winter sun; but more to the point, this area has always provided a unique medicine for the soul. Its inhabitants are justifiably proud of their abundant wildlife and rich cultural inheritance, while Campeche city itself is one of the most beguiling places in Latin America.

Beat-up cars rattle through the narrow cobbled streets, a rusting Dodge parked up outside the pastel blue manicured splendour of a colonial house. The whole city centre is listed as a Unesco world heritage site: a perfectly preserved 16th-century Spanish colonial streetscape, where the fierce tropical sun tears shadows through curving wrought-iron balconies and window grilles, across the painted walls. Despite its overwhelming beauty, historical importance, and extreme safety, Campeche city is no stuffy museum piece. The vigorous thrum of Mexican daily life beats everywhere just beneath its stuccoed skin. The streets are filled with independently-owned shops selling pens, or tinsel, or radios. Women and old men pray beneath the chandeliers inside the finely-kept churches, or come to read their newspapers in the pews, finding sanctuary for the flesh as well as the soul in the cool limestone walls. Pelicans dive into the navy waters of the Gulf of Mexico beyond the city's sea walls, splashing down between small fishing boats, while Mayan women from the countryside sell mangoes on street corners and lanky boys shoot pool at battered green tables in antique colonnades.

Read more...