Day 73 of Firsts: Edit My Own Blog Video

The camera can photograph thought. ~Dirk Bogarde

Up to this point, you all have been subjected to my raw amateur flip camera videos.

Bad news: I will remain, (for the most part) my own photographer for this blog.
Good news: Today I started to learn how to edit the video so you don't have to watch all of my bungling, shakey moves. 

I decided to work with video I took from the Mayan home we visited a couple days ago near Coba, Mexico.  I think it's pretty fascinating. (Or I'm just making you watch my boring vacation movies!)



There's basically one cement floor room with sleeping hammocks, a cooking fire, some jewelry and wood trinkets for the tourists.  Animals of every sort roam freely in and out.

I felt awkward and uncomfortable going on this part of the "tour" and watching these lives on "display".  The trade off, I'm sure, is the little bit of money we left behind in exchange for some homemade crafts. 

I was told the children in this family don't go to school. The country doesn't require it.  The family basically hunts and eats off the land.  No electricity or running water. Amazingly, we were told the life span of the typical Mayan living like this is well into their 80's.  The medical doctors on our tour were stunned.  Healthcare is generally taken care of by the village spiritual leader.

A world away from the finest resorts just miles down the road. 

Anyway, that's my little educational travel video for today.
Hopefully, new, improved, edited videos on oneyearoffirsts coming soon for your viewing pleasure.   

Day 71 of Firsts: Climb Mayan Ruins / Repel into a Cenote

It is not down in any map; true places never are. ~Herman Melville

Hola amigos. What an adventure we had today. So many firsts, I don't know where to begin.
Let me start by saying the tour was so wild, we had to sign papers saying we wouldn't sue anyone if we died.

Check this out. The Rocky Steps times ten.  We climbed up the most ancient Mayan pyramid in Mexico in Coba. This is our Indiana Jones style tour guide, Roby.



Coming down was actually a little tougher than going up.



Next, we went into a Mayan Village, zip lined across a crocodile infested lake, participated in a Mayan ceremony with the village shaman, and THEN repelled 50 feet into a cenote. ( All I kept thinking was, "we're not in Disney World any more! Dude, this is real.") 

Cenote's are considered holy places by the Mayans.  They are actually holey places in the limestone earth, that are like sink holes or wells into water filled caves. Once we got down to the water, we floated on inner tubes.

So much of the day I thought, this is so crazy. No American tour company could ever risk letting tourists do this kind of stuff.  But hey, it's Mexico.  The rules are obviously different here.

Eventually, we went into the home of a Mayan family. The thatched house was one room and pigs and other farm animals roamed inside.  Outside, two of the kids played with their pet monkey.



The funny thing is, you're tramping through the jungle. You are being told not to touch the trees because they're poisonous. It's all very surreal and feels like you're walking in the footsteps of the ancient Mayans. But the modern day Mayans are smart. They took our pictures everywhere and then sold them to us.



You gotta love it.  I did.