The reports of the world's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
But no, experts say, there is no apocalypse coming that day. Rather, the inscribed stone is more like an ancient "Save the Date" that marks the end of the Maya Long Count calendar and the start of a new one.
It's high time to ring in the new. This current calendar has been slogging along for a dreary 5,126 years.
Did someone say "Let's party"?
The Maya 2012 celebration is under way in the Riviera Maya region of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, and tourism is up 7 percent. As if anyone needed an excuse to visit. The 80-mile stretch south of Cancún is the stuff of travel brochures, with white-sand beaches, great snorkeling and diving -- and some of the best-excavated Maya ruins, including Chichén Itzá, Tulum, Cobá and Muyil, within an easy drive.
I was checking out the Riviera Maya in June, with winter tourists gone and weather bearably hot. One day it rained refreshing sheets at the Muyil ruins in the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Wearing pink plastic ponchos, we sped across a rain-lashed lagoon in a motor boat to Xlapak, a Maya temple. Our boatman steered with one hand and bailed with the other. In better weather, from here we would have donned life jackets nd floated along a crystalline river through mangroves, spotting all kinds of birds (336 known species) in this 1.3 million-acre reserve, where a "No Mas Plastik Party" sign signals the tendrils of the Riviera Maya's ecotourism.
Sian Ka'an translates as "where the sky is born," and Maya culture is famous for its knowledge of the night sky -- movement of planets, sun, moon and stars.
By December, watching the night sky with an astronomer will be a popular event. Look for astronomy events offered by tour operators and perhaps even at some of the ruins (www.rivieramaya.com).
The Viceroy Riviera Maya Hotel already is running a series of Observatory Dinner Nights on the 21st of each month, with a Maya-inspired menu and observation of the night sky.
Another place to check out the sky is Xel-Há, an eco-park around a beautiful lagoon. Xel-Há (pronounced shell-ha) will be lighting up the night sky and shimmering waters with a thousand floating candles on Dec. 20 and Dec. 22. They're also throwing Grand Dinners from Dec. 17 to 22, with stargazing and explanation of the Maya astrological predictions.
Ultimate party
Of
course, if you still think the world is going to end, you might as well
go for broke. Hang out with archaeologists and a Maya shaman and go to a
Dec. 21 party on the beach at the Rosewood Mayakoba. The package costs
$79,000 per couple for Dec. 20 to 24. Helicopter to the ruins with an
archaeologist; later meet with a Maya shaman priest for purification and
personalized enlightenment for the New Era.
Lots of resorts and hotels are offering Maya-themed massages using everything from lovely smelling herbs to a chocolate mask body wrap (ka'kaw is the Mayan word for chocolate).
Some resorts offer Temazcal sessions with a shaman (Blue Diamond resort; Viceroy Riviera Maya). This involves sitting in a cave or sauna with hot stones and a shaman, who helps rebalance the body and does a blessing with incense. Temazcals are intense and in close quarters; it's the kind of thing you either love, or it freaks you out.
Legendary ruins
Whether
you go in December or another time of year, the ruins are a must-see
for understanding the brilliance of the Maya people. Start the two-hour
drive to most-visited Chichén Itzá early, as it gets hot and crowded.
At
Chichén Itzá, those clever Maya built the 79-foot pyramid, Temple of
Kukulcan, in such perfect alignment that during the spring and fall
equinoxes, a serpent-shaped shadow slithers down the steps. The temple,
commonly called El Castillo, is one of the New Seven Wonders of the
World.Our Maya guide, Pablo Acosta with Best Day tours, gave us a good grounding in the workings of the ancient Maya culture and the lowdown on the ball court and its gruesome sacrificial rites.
On another day, we visited the ruins at Cobá, which spread out for more than a mile. You can bicycle or hire a bicycle cart to get around. Two pyramids and ball courts have been excavated at this once-large city. You can climb Nohoch Mul pyramid, clinging to a rope for balance.
Following Cobá, our tour took us down into a cenote (cavern) to watch a dramatic group perform an interpretation of a Maya ball court game that evolves into a battle with the underworld. It's quite an experience, watching the painted warriors do battle as dusk falls above the cenote.
These caverns date back to when the Yucatán Peninsula was royally smacked by a meteor 65 million years ago, shattering its limestone top layer like a dropped egg. Rain seeped down, carving out the world's largest underground river system, along with caves and places where limestone roofs collapsed, creating cenotes.
From above, cenote water looks very dark because it's so deep. It's actually fresh and clear, which scuba divers love because they can see for hundreds of feet. Scuba divers also gain bragging rights by diving from cave to cave, following established roped routes.
There are many cenote pools in open caverns where locals go for a swim; in the growing heat after trudging around the hot ruins, a dip looked refreshing.
But I didn't like the deep black look of the water. Ancient Maya thought it led to the underworld, and I could see why.
After all, the Maya had such keen knowledge of celestial movement, they could predict planetary alignments more than 10 centuries ahead to 2012.
They didn't have the same keen fix on what goes on below. And nowhere does their "rock literature" predict the demise of their own empire from A.D. 1000-1200.
Still, I didn't want to test the waters and miss partying Dec. 21 to welcome the New Era.
Riviera Maya hotel is very amazing to see. I want to know the package details over this so give me the knowledge on that. Well! If you want to get some knowledge over transportation from Cancun to Riviera Maya hotel then have ride on that.
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