A BIG part of the culture in the Yucatan Peninsula is Maya. The people who live there today are direct descendants of what you may think of as the Lost Mayan Empire. You hear about Mayan ruins and pyramids, but you may not realize that the Maya people still live among the jungles and farmlands of the Yucatan even as I write this.
Most of them still incorporate traditional clothing, food, building techniques, art, language (YES! You can learn the speak Maya!) and religion into their daily lives.
In January, when my daughter and I went to Mexico, we visited the state of Yucatan where the famed ruins of Chichen Itza are. Standing on the sacred grounds of the temple of Kukulkan is an experience that makes you pause, almost stop breathing, and try to take in the energy of the place and imagine what it was like to be there hundreds of years ago when life in the city was in full swing.
But one of the most humbling things about the site, is to stop and take time to connect with the local people who are there. Now. Today. Selling their art. Trying to feed their families.
How do you get your brain around that?
I bought this handkerchief hand embroidered by this little Maya lady. Her names is Isabella. She sells the things she makes among the ruins of a place where astrologers predicted the exact times comets would pass the earth thousands of years before the comets came, a place where people were sacrificed in times of great turmoil, where tribal wars bloodied the ground, and where immeasurable secrets were lost with the burning of all but two of the ancient books.
And here she stands, asking for a dollar for something she made.
And what does the embroidery say?
"Remember Chichen Itza"
Yu'um Bootik (God go with you -- in Maya)
laura
June 24- July 01, 2017 I am taking a small group back to Chichen Itza and to other sacred places on the Yucatan. We are going in search of the secrets of happiness.
For more information go to https://www.strangertruthtravel.com/happify-mexico-june2017
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