Right, I learnt something today and I'm going to share it. The "Mayan" people don't see themselves as Mayan - they see it as an insulting, colonial tag (incidentally, it's based on the indigenous word for "I don't know what it is" - which is what they said when they saw the Spanish). They would pigeonhole themselves as the Ixi'm - people of the corn. Consider yourselves taught. Or at the very least consider the lies that I wholesale swallowed passed on. (If anyone can be bothered to Google it and correct me I'd be grateful.)
Had an impromptu trip to Tikal this morning. That's Guatemala's premier tourist attraction and the largest pyramid in Meso-America. Pretty impressive stuff, if you can get above the jungle canopy you get to see ruins poking through like the noses of massive stone moles.Also got put straight on this "end of the world" thing, turns out it's a massive distorted exaggeration. Who would have thought? Them Ixi'm just ended their calendar in two weeks' time as it was when the sun completed its slow, slow circle. Still word on the street is Tikal should be quite the party place that night...
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