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

Exotic Bicycle Adventurers

Exotic Bicycles:They evolved over the years to meet our changing needs.

Leaving Netherlands along the Amelo-Nordhorn Canal and entering Germany on the paved bicycle path known as the “Grenz route” or border route we enjoy the friendly open borders of the Euro-zone.

We have been bicycling for over forty years in North America and Europe.

We have the most pleasure exploring quiet paved roads; the slower we go the more fun we have.

Our collection of cycles has filled our needs for amusement, entertainment, excursions, travel, and shopping.

After all these years we still roll along on our oldest machines that we refer to as our exotic bicycles.

For the past twelve years we have not owned any motor vehicles. All of our travels have been by bicycle or on public transport with our folding bikes.

Not being racers or speed freaks, modifications began to evolve.

For comfort Jane got new handle bars and a comfortable springy seat. For shopping and touring, carrier racks were installed. Then alloy crank, wheels, and shifters became upgrades. Before our Rhine River trip up to Switzerland, new mountain compatible sprockets were installed. After our cross Europe trip through East Germany and into Poland, where we broke twenty spokes on the cobble stoned streets, I exchanged all of our spokes for heavy duty Mexican replacements…fixed!

A computer, drink holders, and front rack for straddle bags were added to make cross-country touring even better for serious cross-country. The innovations made our bikes into little pack mules. A map holder and my personally designed “save my ass” bike seat came next. I designed the seat to save my sex life and protect my kidneys using light duty springs and special cut high density padding. A compass and two drink holders completed the upgrades.

Our exotic bicycles are robust but roll extremely well.

My bike modifications made me think back to a story my grandfather told me:

One day when I was in his shop he held up a well worn little hammer, and he exclaimed, “This hammer has been in the family a long time, it has had seven handles and two new heads.” That sounds a lot like our exotic bicycles.

Ten years ago I was 62 years old and many times made 120 kilometer days.

Now I am 72 years old and 40-50 kilometer days are enough…it must be the global warming?

History of our exotic bicycles: They were purchased second hand in Florida when we lived there. We loaded the bikes on our camper and traveled across the U.S. from Florida to the Pacific Northwest and California to Maine. In Canada we biked the islands of British Columbia and across to the Maritime Provinces in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. We had a home at Brownsville, Texas, and biked the area there, and then settled in Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico.

Eighteen years ago we loaded the bikes on a freighter with our camper bound for Rotterdam, Netherlands. In Europe we have bicycled with our exotic bicycles from Norway and Sweden to Spain and Portugal and from Western Europe to Poland plus every centimeter of the Rhine River from the North Sea all the way up to Konstanz in Switzerland at the Bodensee, headwaters of the Rhine. 

Biking the rural canal region near Emsbüren, Germany: We are still rolling on our exotic bicycles, and they don’t owe us much.

Click here to read more about our life long dedication to adventures.

Yucatán’s Magic – Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab

Finally the book for traveling adventurers who want to see more than just trinket shops and crowded tourist traps has arrived:

Just launched — our new book, Yucatán’s Magic – Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab

–Built one stone at a time like the Mayan pyramids–

Over a quarter of a century of inspired exploration and recording of our travels in captioned photo stories has led my wife and me to compile an impressive collection of outings that are the foundation for this book, built one story at a time.

We present the best of the best after over twenty-five years; places, excursions, and outings. Each place we have visited we liked for different reasons; tranquility, history, view of village life, and connect with the Maya past and present, change of scenery and a look at a uniquely distinctive region. 

Available for Kindle and  in paperback.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005POWVU8
Available as an EPUB e-book, click here.  
From Barnes & Nobles for Nook, click here.

IZAMAL, YUCATÁN, TO KANTUNIL WITH VISITS TO CUAUHTÉMOC, SUDZAL AND XANABA BY BIKE AND BUS 2011

One of the all time best one-day Yucatán get-away excursions we have found.
This is an easy and pleasurable trip if you take advantage of a tail-wind and cold front. We are down-wing sailors. (With a northerly wind start from Izamal. Contrarily with a southerly wind begin your trip from the other end at Kantunil.)
To maximize the pleasure of this adventure we recommend taking the Centro bus that departs at 6:45 AM from their terminal on Calle 65 two blocks east of the main market, adjacent to and east of the Casa de Pueblo.
There are faster ways to get to Izamal but this quiet back road route, though slow, is a pleasant look at Yucatán that most tourist miss.
Our bus route took us east first to Tixkokob, famous for hammock makers, while the early morning shoppers were still packing the quaint colonial streets.
Being a local bus we were steadily acquiring more and more passengers heading to the remote villages that lay ahead. As we passed our next town of Cacalchén the road narrowed perceptibly and each of the upcoming towns in turn grew smaller and smaller heading to Bokobá.  Tekantó, Tixcochó, Teya,  and Tepekán, were all typical quiet quaint Mayan villages where many of the homes were palapa thatched huts commingled with the remnants of colonial era haciendas.  At rural Tepekán we made our final turn and headed into Izamal on a road as straight as a die and we knew that this roadway had to be a remnant of an ancient Maya sacbe road built countless centuries before.

As tourist end destinations go Izamal is one of Yucatán’s finest and well worth a day or two of your time to explore and get to know.      READ MORE

©2011 John M. Grimsrud

Click on map to enlarge.

Faces of Carnival - Mérida, Yucatán - 2011

To view the rest of John's Carnival photos, click here.