In the deep outback of the Yucatan Peninsula, only a few dozen miles from Merida, Xul was, years ago, the last village along the road.
Four years ago, an odd group of Italians settled in town. They built their own village, called the Eagles (the same name the ancient Aztec Warriors called their best fighters) by hiring the local inhabitants as construction workers.
If you ask them what they are doing there (whereas there is nothing to do back there), they only reply that they came here attracted by the cheap price of the land. However, rumors say that they came to escape from the end of the world by creating a kind of secret community with underground tunnels, huge water cisterns, round-roof fortified homes, a thick-walled gate, and so on.. Even living in autonomous community is their goal: they raise cattle, they produce cheese and they tend fruit trees. A perfect little independent society.
The conversation keeps going: until we get to the next question about the end of the world, obviously!!!
But they seem to not be very willing to talk about it. They only allude to a potential natural catastrophe forecasted by scientists. But nothing linked with superstition. Facts and only facts. Nada más.
What for, you may wonder? If we are to believe the predictions that are out there, one will say the end of the world is coming soon (hardly 10 months left). They have prepared their retreat to wait and pass successfully this step between the future ancient world and the future new world, the one “after the big cataclysm”, which should happen in December.
However, if we are referring to the Mayan Calendar, the specialists who study Mayan History will tell you that Maya did not predict the end of the world on December, the 21, 2012. It is supposed to be an important date for the Mayans: in fact, The Mayans have two calendars, the solar one lasts 365 days and the Venusian, based on the cycle of Venus, calendar which has 584 days .Those two meet once every 52 years!! And the 52 years come to the end on the coming 21th of December.
We now understand better why 2012 is an important date for the Mayans!! A new century is beginning on that day!!! Don’t you remember the start of our 21st century? All the presidents were talking on TV, people partying in the street, celebrating the countdown all together! Fireworks lit up the world that day!! Well, it will be the same for the Maya. New Year, new century, big deal!
If you go to the anthropological museum in Mexico City, which is by the way, one of the best museums in the world, your guide will explain you in front of the Sun Stone that “only” big changes are supposed to happen in 2012. The Maya believed that change was necessary if people wanted to continue and do well in the new century. OR maybe they were simply predicting the 2012 Presidential Election for 3 important countries – China, France, United States. Who knows?
Finally the Maya could not predict the end of the world in their culture as they based their calculations of time on the movements of stars, which is perpetual and endless. When a cycle ends, a new one starts right away.
Notwithstanding our Italian friends, we have 10 months left to enjoy the Riviera Maya. We are maybe not able to offer you a round-roof bunker, but for sure, we can propose some nice condominiums with views on the turquoise sea to wait on the 21st of December!
