End of the Mayan World - December 21st, 2012 – The shortest day of the year

The ancient Maya possessed the most advanced civilization in the Americas with astronomy, agriculture, mathematics, medicines, and a written history.

Above a Mayan shaman gazes into his crystal ball and envisions the coming destructive force of the zealous inquisition crazed Spanish conquistadors that would mark their doom. 

Today charlatans preaching gloom and disaster, not shamans, have stepped up to capitalize on the end of the Mayan long count calendar.

Charlatans never seem to run out of sycophantic sympathizers who march behind them like hoards of lemmings. The number of crank religions world wide today attest to this ever expanding phenomenon. 

[Above painting is a portion of a mural from the Valladolid, Yucatan municipal building.]

Recommended reading:

Final Report an archeologist excavates his past by Michael D. Coe Extensive tops in research, the ultimate in documentation with cutting edge facts, this is the very best of the lot.

Time Among the Maya by Ronald Wright, An eye opening look at the real Mayan people and places untouched by the outside world…excellent!

Yucatán’s Magic:Mérida Side Trips by John M. Grimsrud, Visit the places that tourists miss most in the Mayan world of Yucatan

Yucatan Steam Train and Roadways

This old narrow gauge steam train that proudly pulled the products that made Yucatan the richest state in Mexico around the time of the First World War now quietly rusts away on a rail siding in downtown Mérida and is unnoticed by speeding highway traffic.

Not all was lost from those glorious days of Yucatan’s steam train travel.

Back in the early 1970s Walt Disney came to Mérida and purchased the last serviceable narrow gauge steam locomotives and transported them to his new Florida amusement park.  Four of these engines were restored to a state of better than new and two were used for replacement parts in a special machine shop designed exclusively for that purpose.

This photo was taken at Disney World in Florida. The painted and polished Baldwin locomotives spent a very hard life toting cargo and passengers through the jungles of Yucatan and was restored by Disney.  Jane and I had an enjoyable time at the Florida amusement park conversing with the engineer and crew that kept the rail equipment rolling. The engine in the photo is named Mérida. 

The Yucatan is full of many relics of those bygone years from the ancient Maya and the conquistador Spanish. These include sacbe roads, pyramids, and haciendas.

Pictured in this recent photo is a well worn wooden cargo cart with its tire tread wheels, wooden  saddle and henequin harnesses that will keep on pulling when this world runs out of gas.  

YUCATAN’S MAGIC –MÉRIDA SIDE TRIPS, read this fascinating book and discover the roads that evolved over the centuries beginning with the Mayan sacbe infrastructure, and visit the places the tourists miss most.

For more of Yucatan Roadways, click here.