A couple of years ago I wandered the ruins of Chichen Itza at night. A friend brought a powerful flashlight, and we jacklighted the ancient monuments one by one. The effect was spectacular.

INAH, the federal agency that oversees Chichen Itza, is planning to illuminate the ruins at night and open them to tourism. Until that happens, a Mexican/Argentinian/US marketing firm, acuatro producciones, has created a clever short film that gives you a taste of what it would be like. “Chichén Itzá Recorridos Nocturnos” (”Chichen Itza Night Travels”–I think), a computer animated film, flits through the ancient city and illuminates the monuments one-by-one.

“El Concierto de las Mil Columnas: Plácido Domingo en Chichén Itzá” will be broadcast on large screens in plazas and theaters across Yucatan–for free.

Previously it had been announced that the Oct. 4 concert will be broadcast on Pay-Per-View, and the later rebroadcast over commercial television. Now it will be made available all over Yucatan, an initiative of Governor Ivonne Ortega and Jorge Esma Bazán, director of patronato CULTUR.

Screens will be set up in plazas, parks, theaters and other open spaces throughout the state. No locations have been announced so far.

Okay, this post really isn’t fair. It’s not news, but it involves two of my favorite subjects, The Beatles and Chichen Itza.

Ringo Starr’s former girlfriend, Nancy Lee Andrews, will present an exhibit of photos of 70s rock stars at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. Entitled “Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Pinch of Country,” the exhibit includes photos of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Duane Allman, Harry Nilsson and boyfriend Ringo Starr, all as they were 30 years ago.

One of the photos on display is of Ringo at … wait for it … Chichen Itza. When Andrews pointed it out to a reporter from the Tennessean, she said, “”As you can see, Richard’s (Richard Starkey, Ringo’s real name) got a camera in his lap. We were camera-crazy people. Imagery was very much a part of what happened between us, and our friends.”

Unfortunately, the photo isn’t on the Web. You have to go to Tennessee to see it.

In another interview at the Beatles fan site Day Trippin’ Magazine, Andrews described how she and Ringo almost died in the Yucatan:

“We were having a nice time in the Yucatan for about a week until Ringo suddenly became restless. He woke up one morning and said, “Get me off this island. I don’t care how you do it, but get me outta here.”

In a matter of hours I managed to book a twin-engine plane to Merida that seated six people. Our party of four, the two pilots and our embarrassing amount of luggage put us well over the plane’s weight capacity. Despite that and a looming tropical storm, no one could talk Ringo into staying another day.

The pounding storm forced us to fly so low that the bottom of the plane was brushing against the tops of the trees. I was trying to calm my friend Susin S. Fair down, who was sure that our plane was going to go crash in the jungle and our remains would never be found. Hilary Gerard, Ringo’s manager, was holding Tibetan prayer beads up against his third eye, furiously chanting and wishing for a cigarette.

While everyone was frantic and on the verge of breaking down, Ringo was as calm as could be. He said very matter-of-factly, “Don’t worry, it’s not my time to go, so we’ll all be fine.”

For those who can’t make it Nashville to see Andrews’ exhibit, you can buy her book of photography, A Dose of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Archaeologists working at Chichen Itza’s sister city of Tulum have found the skeleton of a woman that dates back 13,600 years, which, if true, makes it the oldest human skeleton found so far in the Americas.

The skeleton’s discoverers call it Eva de Naharon (”Eve from Naharon”). The bones were found 23 meters underwater in a cave system some 45 kilometers southwest of the ancient Maya city of Tulum in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Experts estimate the skeleton belonged to a woman who was 45 at death, and who had been 1.41 meters tall.

Previously the oldest skeleton found in the Americas was “Mujer del Peñón de los Baños” (”The Woman from the Rock of the Bath”) which had been found outside Mexico City and was dated to 12,600 years ago.

Find the complete story of the discovery in the Mexican magazine, Milenio, HERE (in Spanish).

The wife of the president of Mexico will be among the throngs who thrill to the golden throat of Placido Domingo when he performs at Chichen Itza on October 4.

Margarita Zavala, wife of President Felipe Calderón, has notified Yucatan governor Ivonne Ortega of her desire to see the “Concierto de las Mil Columnas” (”Concert of the Thousand Columns”). Mexico’s First Lady send a letter to the governor and to Jorge Esma Bazán, director of the Patronato Cultura confirming her attendance, according to promoters of the concert.

Mexico President Felipe Calderón and his wife, Margarita Zavala.

For more stories about the “Concert of One Thousand Columns,” click HERE.

I wonder, sometimes, how television programs get made in the first place.

A perfect example is “The Lost Gods,” hosted by Irish writer Christy Kenneally. This six-part series traveled the world to look at the religions of six ancient cultures. One episode focused on the Maya. Shot in high definition, the program featured some of the most beautiful shots of the Maya cities of Tikal, Palenque and Chichen Itza ever broadcast. But the script purporting to be fact was instead chock full of apocrypha.

As the host wanders the ruins of Chichen Itza, he dramatically repeats every single popular (yet mistaken) believe about the Maya: That they sacrificed virgins in the Sacred Cenote, that the winners of the ball game gave up their lives, that the Chac Mool statue was built to hold hearts of the freshly sacrificed. I’m hard pressed to find a single, verifiable fact, at least in the section that features Chichen Itza. But boy, did the producers get some amazing shots of the place.

Below is Part II, and Chichen Itza gets introduced about 3 minutes 30 seconds in:

The show is entertaining enough, but I wonder why INAH, the federal agency that oversees Chichen Itza, allowed the producers access to the site? This, incidentally, is pure envy on my part. I would love to photograph in all the places the producers of this program were allowed to go.

I did not watch the other parts of the program, but you can find them here:

The Lost Gods, Part I

The Lost Gods, Part III

The Yucatan state governmentt will soon begin construction on a 200 kilometer road that will connect, among other things, the ancient city of Uxmal with its counterpart, Chichen Itza.

The state will kick off the project spending 64 million pesos this year to expand and modernize the road between Muna, about 10 kilometers from Uxmal, through Chichen Itza to Peto. The entire project when completed is estimated to cost 600 million pesos.

Muna, an important trucking center, already serves as a hub for transportation to the southeastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula to Chetumal and from there to Belize. This new road will connect it the northeastern part of the peninsula, most importantly to major highway to Cancun.

Once the road is completed, visitors to Chichen Itza will be able to drive directly to Uxmal, instead of detouring through Merida.

The organizers of the Oct. 4 “Concert of the Thousand Columns,” featuring Placido Domingo at Chichen Itza, promise that all profits will be “invested” in Chichen Itza and other archaeological sites.

Darío de León, coordinador de la presentación told the Mexican news service Notimex that the concert will be broadcast live on pay-per-view television, and then rebroadcast later on commercial television.

de León revealed some of the details of the logistics behind the concert. The stage will be constructed between El Castillo and the Great Ball Court, probably in the same location from where Pavarotti sang in the 1990s (in front of the Temple of the Warriors). His team will meet with INAH later this month to finish working out the specific details.

Domingo will arrive at Chichen on Oct. 1, flying into the Chichen Itza airport in Kaua. He will be staying in the hotel zone, and although de León did not say where, the best bet would be the Mayaland, which is where Pavarotti stayed as well.

Domingo also will purchase 100 tickets to his own show, this in addition to his complementary allotment of tickets that he receives as part of his contract. The tenor intends to give them to “prominent personalities” in the music business. There will still be plenty of tickets for everyone else as the concert is expected to draw 4,000 patrons

Domingo will sing five songs from Yucatan, including the greatest of all ballads from the area, “Peregrina.” He will also perform “Caminante del Mayab,” “Las golondrinas yucatecas,” “Adoro,” and “Somos novios.”

Tickets, which range from 500 to 10,000 pesos, are available from Ticketmaster in Mexico and outlets in the nation, but apparently are not available in the United States or Canada. Nonetheless, concert organizers reporter there is tremendous interest in from music aficionados NOB (north of the border).

Previously:

Tickets to Placido Domingo at Chichen Itza on Track to Sell Out

Fully one-quarter of the tickets to see Placido Domingo perform at Chichen Itza already have been sold after less than a week. At this pace, the concert will be a sell out, according to organizers.

Therefore it is probably a good thing that permission has been granted to use Chichen Itza as a concert venue, according to a report from the Mexican new service, Notimex. The chairman of the National Council for Arts and Culture (Conaculta), Sergio Martinez Vela, confirmed that the Ministry of Education has given permission for the concert on October 4.

The concert organizers won permission by agreeing to the conditions set forth by the National Council of Archaeology, which advises INAH, the federal agency in charge of the archaeological zone of Chichen Itza. The Council had originally rejected the proposal for the concert, but by reducing the number of attendees as well as taking other measures to protect the ruins, permission was given.

“It seems to me that this matter has been fulfilled completely,” Martinez Vela told the news agency. “There is no threat to the archaeological zone and (the concert) has nothing so that objection can be raised elsewhere. Finally, an artistic activity in a privileged place that respects both the nature and symbolism.”

The next step will be a visit to Yucatan by Alfonso de María y Campos, director general of INAH, who will meet with Yucatecan officials to sign an agreement to ensure protection of the Mayan archaeological site during the concert. “The main reason for the agreement is the preservation of this heritage of mankind, but it also has to do with rights by law required in order to convey to the world this great event,” the director general told reportersl.

With legal hurdles out of the way, demand for tickets for “The Concert of the Thousand Columns: Plácido Domingo in Chichen Itza” could not be better, says Jorge Esma Bazan, director of the Mexico’s Trust for Tourism and Cultural Services (Cultur). With one-quarter sold, all will be gone in 30 days, he said.

Tickets are available only in Mexico, through Ticketmaster and at locations where tickets are sold. Tickets are as high as 10,000 pesos (which includes a cocktail reception and dinner attended by Placido), and as low as 500 pesos.

Previously:

BULLETIN: Tickets on Sale for Placido At Chichen Itza

Composition dedicated to Chichen Itza to be Premiered

Organizers Closer to Bringing Placid Domingo to Chichen Itza

Secretary of Education, Not INAH, to Decide on Placido Domingo Concert at Chichen Itza

UPDATE: Placido Domingo Concert at Chichen Itza Still up in Air, But Lots of Juicy Detail Revealed

INAH Heading for Showdown With State of Yucatan over Placido Domingo Concert?

INAH Council Issues Decision on Placido Domingo at Chichen Itza: ‘NO’

INAH Mum on Placido Domingo Concert at Chichen Itza

Placido Domingo to Sing At Chichen Itza October 4

Pavarotti Watches Kukulcan Drip Down El Castillo

When Pavarotti Sang to the Maya

All This, Over Pavarotti?

Photo by Debi in Merida

If you’ve clicked around this Web site, you may know that I’m writing a book about Chichen Itza, titled (for now) American Egypt. Of late I’ve been wrestling to put words around the life of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, the governor of Yucatan who opened Chichen Itza up to the world in 1923 and then was assassinated.

I’m planning to return to Yucatan this fall and one of the things I’ll be researching will be Carrillo Puerto. I plan to visit is his hometown of Motul, east of Merida, the capital of Yucatan State. Motul is not only famous as being the home of Carrillo Puerto, but also the creator of a dish called huevos motuleños (eggs ala Motul). Debi, an expatriate living in Merida, recently visited Motul and wrote about it on her blog. Here’s a snippet of what she said:

Friends Ricardo and Spike called the other day and asked it we wanted to go out for breakfast? Well never ones to pass up an opportunity to eat…We went to Motul for breakfast this morning.

A friend, Calman, had made a boast that for the ‘best’ huevos motuleños you had to go to Motul where, after all, that they were developed. At the Museo de Felipe Carillo Puerto the caretaker/guide indicated that the chef to Felipe Carillo Puerto developed, prepared, and served huevos motuleños to visiting officials and dignitaries.

OK, so we arrive in Motul, circle the square until we spy the desired location, park and make our way up to the very fresh breezy balcony where you have 2 restaurant choices. We opted for the one name El Mirador. We ordered 4 huevos motuleños 2 jamaicas, and 2 cristales. My huevos (pictured) are sin queso. Our bill ended up being 180 pesos total.

Oh, were the huevos good? Let’s see -

You can read the rest of Debi’s adventure in Motul HERE.