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Monday, May 10, 2004
You're welcome 
| | A few minutes after a minor earthquake in the wee hours of yesterday morning, I posted this report. |
| | Since we lost our local news radio station last year (and, amazingly, we still lack a local news-oriented NPR station), I tuned to the biggest regional news station out of Los Angeles, KNX/1070. They had nothing on the air, so I called their newsroom and got no answer — not even a message machine — but their site featured a page with a little box where you can post "comments." So I filed my story there. |
| | A few minutes ago I received an email from somebody with a promotion/marketing title saying "Thank you for taking the time in sending us this information. I will forward this to the news dept for them to double check against their information." |
Don't say you weren't warned
| | Ten great days on the Usumacinta, studying the ancient mooring stones of the Maya. Wonderful, in spite of getting robbed in the middle of the night by gun and machete toting bandits. We camped on a beach that was fine last year, not this year. There is apparently an organized group that preys on the illegal immigrants passing through, fires shots at passing authorities and is now targeting tourists. |
| | Note to future rafters and travelers - stay off of the beach on the Mexican side at a spot known as Anaite, just below the "Tower" guard post on the Guatemalan shore, a few hours below Yaxchilan. The beach is on a sharp right turn in the river, above Chicozapote rapids. |
| | Beyond that we had no problems, |
| | Anyway, maybe you've been following this business about the Mayan ruins in Guatamala. Needless to say, Dave has been on that case. And he's sending a heads-up for a National Geographic Special, "Dawn of the Maya," airing on PBS two days from now, on May 12. He writes, |
| | I've been down here in Mexico and Guatemala for 3 months now, documenting the work of archaeologists and doing the Usumacinta River campaign (stop the dams, save the river). The first 5 weeks were spent in tunnels inside a pyramid in San Bartolo, where Bill Saturno has been excavating pre-Classic murals since he stumbled on one in a looters trench in 2001. He`s featured, with shots from last year`s work, in the new National Geographic Special airing on PBS this week, May 12. The show "Dawn of the Maya" presents new findings about the earliest days of the Maya in a familiar style - skillful editing, gorgeous shots, dramatic recreations, lots of spooky music. Yes, the Maya are mysterious, but this is predictably over the top. I saw a pre-screening last night here in Flores, Guatemala, with an audience of local officials and tourism operators, who are justifiably proud of their state (the Peten) as the birthplace of Maya culture. Most of the screen time is taken by the site of El Mirador and the controversial archaeologist Richard Hansen. Many here in Flores think his ambitious plans to create a new tourist destination may threaten the work they have done over the last 20 years to preserve the Maya Biosphere. In this program, he is presented as the guy who will save it. |
| | In any case, the show is worth watching for other folks like me who have been bitten by the jungle bug. |
| | Of course, finding evidence of the show on either the National Geographic or the PBS site is an exercise akin to crawling through one of those Mayan tunnels. These three links are searches for "Dawn of the Maya" on Google, PBS and National Geographic. Guess which ones come up with nothing. |
| | Here's the schedule for WGBH, Channel 2 in Boston. Check your local listings. And good luck trying. |
Floating heads of state
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