I’m baaaaack. OMG, it was sooo lovely to relax on the beach with friends. Fiction was read (i *really* loved The Glass Castle), Mayan ruins were visited, fishies were viewed through snorkel gear, food was eaten, and there was a lot of hammocking. Glorious glorious be vacation. And now I’m 30 (and 😛 to all of you who pointed out that this means I entered my 31st year).
More photos can be found here and here.
We ended up staying at a little house north of Tulum called Casa Rosa. Aside from the decorator’s obsession with Pier 1, it was the most glorious place ever. If anyone wants a getaway with a group of friends, I strongly strongly recommend staying at Casa Rosa. I’m sooo going back. Yay for perfect affordable getaway house on the beach.
I strongly recommend against AeroMexico. One of my friends who was supposed to go on the adventure showed up at the airport to find that they had oversold her flight and they didn’t promise they’d get her there for the holiday weekend. They wouldn’t even check her in. No voluntary giving up of seats – they simply denied her access. Bad AeroMexico – that’s totally unacceptable. I will never fly with them as a result. It was complete bullshit and she ended up not being able to get to the vacation at all. Bleh.
The Tulum ruins were pretty, but I really got a kick out of the Chichen Itza ballcourt, although I still don’t understand the game that the Mayans were playing. And was it the winners who were sacrificed or the losers?
Hey,
This is how it was explained to me when I was there — It was the captain of the winner’s team that was sacrificed at the end of the game. It was considered an honor to be sacrificed and the body of the captain was either thrown in the cenote or burned and the ashes were spread over the crops (I can’t remember exactly which). In that way the captain of the team was assuring that either the water supply or the harvest would be protected by the gods for another year. It was thought that in this way the ascension to heaven would be immediate and guarenteed also. So it was a double bonus, you were helping out the society and you got a straight shot into the afterlife.
The only thing I can think that comes close are suicide bombers (excusing the sociopolitcal for a moment). They do it for the immediate reward (attacking a stronger enemy) and they are guaranteed a spot in heaven with X number of virgins. So there is a benefit in here and a benefit in the afterlife.
Hopefully someone explain it better but that’s what I remember from my tour guide.
Hi,
I want to invite you to check out TripnTale, a website I created for people to share their trip’s memories such as photos, journals or videos.
thanks,
Darwin
I came to your site because someone pointed me to your ani lyrics collection, but I’ve been reading your thoughts ever since, and I’m really impressed! I was sort of ranting about online social networks a few days ago, but just purely emotional reaction, so it has been really interesting reading your thoughts, since you’ve been studying the issue.
As for the game and the sacrifice, what Ben said is more or less what I learned while on tour there as well. I just wanted to add that in order to honor the gods, they had to sacrifice the best of the best, and so that’s why the competition with the winners as the sacrifice. They’d have displeased the gods or insulted them or whatever if they’d sacrificed the loosers! I thought it was the entire winning team, or maybe the one who scored the winning point, who was sacrificed, but I could be wrong. It was a few years ago that I was there.