Teaser campaign for “Triumph …” coming to the Las Vegas Hilton.
The ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza will be one of the settings for “Triumph …”, a magic extravaganza by LaRaf (Larry Fisher and Rafael Palacios), opening at the Las Vegas Hilton this fall.
According to Robin Leach, formerly of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and now a Vegas newspaper columnist, LaRaf promises this will not be “just another magic show.” Apparently the story behind the show is that the two magicians will be traveling back through time and one of the big production numbers will be set in Chichen Itza, complete with dancers dressed, Vegas-style, as preColumbian Maya.
The Chichen Itza setting is one of three big production numbers, according to Leach. Another will have the duo battling through the nine circles of hell (complete with fire effects) and another will be at the Columbian Exposition of Chicago in 1893, where a Tesla electric car will be “built” onstage and then float through the air before disappearing (don’t blink!).
LaRaf recently appeared on Craig Ferguson’s “Late Late Show” on CBS:
Last weekend the Cenote Ik Kil near Chichen Itza hosted the second event in the 2010 Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series. Diver Gary Hunt of Great Britain won, but the real award went to the locale.
“It’s an awesome location, I think one of the best ones so far,” said diver Kent de Mond. “It’s such an unusual place.”
Unlike other locations of the six-event tournament, the Cenote Ik Kil had limited seating, so very few spectators witnessed the event as divers dropped more than 80 feet from the surface, through the cenote roof and into the cavernous waters below.
“The first dive is the main one and I thought I did okay,” said Mexico’s Fito Gutierrez. “You have to be nervous to get it right but, yes, I was a bit scared!”
For more videos and photos, visit the tournament website HERE.
That is, Amelia Earhart if she was reincarnated into the body of a curvaceous woman with a foreign accent. This woman apparently claims to be Earhart reborn, among other famous personages, and takes metaphysical adventures around the world.
She also met a very tall man with gray hair at Chichen. If you want to watch more, you’ll have to watch her Youtube video yourself:
Another senator in the Mexican Congress is calling for the expropriation (taking) of those parts of the archaeological site of Chichen Itza that were not purchased by the state of Yucatan in late March.
Senator Blanca Judith Díaz Delgado yesterday called for INAH, the federal agency that oversees preHispanic ruins in Mexico, to take by expropriation some 500 acres surrounding the central archaeological zone of Chichen Itza. She joins Senator Hugo Laviada Molina of Yucatan who made a similar demand last week.
Both Diaz Delgado and Laviada Molina are members of the PAN party, which apparently is attempting to embarrass the rival PRI party, which currently controls Yucatan state politics and which successfully managed to buy Chichen after INAH failed in its attempt to expropriate Chichen Itza several years ago.
The property surrounding Chichen is currently owned by private individuals and by indigenous people in the area in collectives known as ejidos.
A beautiful promotional video about the state of Yucatan recently released has no sign of Chichen Itza in it anywhere. And it’s still good!
This surreal, lovely video, produced by the Spanish network Televisa, is the sixth of what will be many celebrating Mexico’s 200th anniversary as a nation (and 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution). Each short film portrays a different state.
This was produced by Pedro Torres and directed by Diego Pernia.
(A tip of the cursor to Debi Kuhn of “Debi in Merida” for bringing this to my attention)
A thousand years ago, Maya would throw people into the Cenote Sagrado, a giant sinkhole at Chichen Itza, as a sacrifice to the rain god Chaac. This Sunday, people will be diving into a cenote by their own free will.
The Cenote Ik Kil, some four kilometers southeast of Chichen Itza, will host the second event in the Red Bull Cliff Diving 2010 World Series. A dozen of the best cliff divers from around the world will come to Yucatan on Sunday and compete by taking turns performing acrobatic dives into the cenote.
Ik Kil, like many cenotes, is mostly underground. Divers will apparently start at the large hole at the top and then dive 39 meters to the fresh water below. Unlike the other events in the World Series, this one will not be set up for an audience, that is, there will be no grandstands. The only ones who will witness the dives will be the judges and any tourists that happen to be at the cenote at the time.
For more information about the event, visit the official website HERE.
During my recent visit to Yucatan I was caught in monsoon-like rains. More than one person said it was the worst flooding they had ever seen, and a friend recorded more than 4 inches of rain in only a few hours.
A Yucatecan senator in the Mexican Congress wants the federal government to take the rest of Chichen Itza, that is all the property that was not purchased in March by the government of the state of Yucatan.
Senator Hugo Laviada Molina, a member of the PAN party, proposed earlier this month that INAH, the federal agency that oversees the ruins of Mexico, take by expropriation some 500 hectares owned by members of the Barbachano family.
This property includes the Mayaland Hotel, which the family built and has operated for 80 years, as well as the buildings of the Hacienda Chichen, which the family converted into a top class resort and spa. The family also owns the property upon which rests Chichen Viejo, a network of ruins that are not open to the public. The ruins of Chichen Viejo are owned by the people Mexico and in the care of INAH.
The PAN senator said he wants to take the property of the Barbachanos using “legal appraisal, accountability, respect for the law and proper handling of national resources,” stating this was not done with the sale of the archaeological zone to the PRI-party controlled State of Yucatan. Members of the PAN party, which recently lost several elections in Yucatan, have been openly critical of the Chichen sale. Senator Laviada Molina also called for Yucatan Governor Ivonne Ortega Pacheco (PRI) to make public the conditions, terms and amounts of the Chichen purchase, as well as the source of the money used.
The state agreed to pay the owner of the 83-hectare archaeological zone, Hans Jurgen Thies Barbachano, $220 million Mexician ($17.6 million US). This was after the federal government failed in its attempt to expropriate the property. The federal government’s official appraisal of all of Chichen Itza and surrounding lands owned by the Barbachano family and others, approximately 1,500 hectares (3,750 acres) was only $8 million Mexican (at the time approximately $500,000 US), which to slightly more than $100 US per acre.
For more information regarding Senator Laviada Molina’s statement, see the Diario de Yucatan article HERE.
The local cleric and acolytes carry the statue of St. Isidro from the Hacienda Chichen chapel. Photo by Michael Maurus.
I just returned from 10 days in the Yucatan, including some time spent around Chichen Itza. On May 15, the Hacienda Chichen holds a fiesta in honor of its patron saint, Isidro. The fiesta is held every spring during the planting season, when Maya in the area start their milpas (corn or maize fields). During the celebration, there are dances and a Mass to ask the higher powers for rain … but not too much.
Maya ‘princesses,’ in their traditional Maya huipile dresses, dance at the fiesta to honor St. Isidro. Photo by Michael Maurus.
As you will see in the short video that follows, the celebration combines a Catholic Mass (held in the ancient chapel on the hacienda grounds) with other activities that have perhaps an older origin.
Want to own a piece of Chichen Itza? A Yucatecan company is looking to cash in on the cache that is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, according to a new website.
“Make Money Now in Chichen Itza,” according to the website. Digging deeper you see that it is a pitch for a development project a few kilometers southeast of the archaeological zone.
If I read the contract correctly (which can be found on the website, along with a nifty certificate of authenticity–see below), for $10,000 U.S. one will receive a one-fifth share of the Punta Chichen Itza project, to be built on 500 hectares (1250 acres) near Chichen Itza. Is the only credit card you own a Discover card? Not a problem, as the developers claim they can accept it.
The website appears to use video and graphics from other Chichen Itza projects, but don’t worry. There is a disclaimer at the bottom that notes “Images are artists [sic] conception for information purposes only.” There is another disclaimer as well that says this is not a pitch for money, even if the developers are asking for money and accept credit cards.
If you happen to have an extra ten grand laying around, why not follow the lead of the state of Yucatan and purchase a piece of Chichen Itza, even if it really is a few kilometers away?
