Thursday January 30, 2025 – At Sea Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The first Lecture was the fascinating adventurer – George Kourounis who spoke about – The Ring of Fire – this is a horseshoe shaped ring going all around the Pacific Ocean where there is a lot of volcanic activity (the vast majority) and earthquakes / Tsunami’s. It was amusing when he recounted the story of Burger King wanted to do a commercial to introduce the Extremely Hot Burger at the Brazil Olympic Games. They hired George to repel down the Pacaya volcano crater, in Guatemala, get some molten lava, light a “torch” and carry the flame to Brazil to light the grill, to make the first Extreme Whopper. He did indeed go down the sulphuric walls and get the lava and showed the commercial. The product was a flop, but he was happy with his payment and the ability to state he is the only person to have gone down into the molten lava of Pacaya Volcano.
The second lecture was by Dr Michael Conniff – Mysteries of the Maya World. It’s truly a shame that a lecturer about the Maya knows so little about the subject that it is surprising that this professor would stand and pretend to talk about things of which he has little knowledge. He showed a picture of a Maya City, which was actually Teotihuacán, outside Mexico City,. Then he explained about farming technics by the Maya, showing the floating islands of Xochimilco that were actually developed by the Aztecs several hundred years after the decline of the Maya. Next he talked about the “Dresden Codex” which he said was written in the 11th / 12th Century BCE and can be found in Madrid. Prior to that he explained that the Classic Maya existed between 200 and 90 CE (AD). So somehow 14 centuries before the Maya came into existence the Maya books were written and even though it is called the “Dresden” Codex (because it is actually in Dresden, Germany) he said it can be viewed in Madrid, where there is another Mayan codex – Called the Madrid Codex OR Troano and Cortesiano OR Tro-Cortesano.
The third lecture was the interesting Art-historian Dr. Seth Gopin talking about – The American West – A Landscape to Behold. Here he took various paintings and discussed them and how the West was depicted as unchartered territory while the East USA was civilized.
Finally the evening show was the outstanding Mark Donoghue – Multi-Instrumentalist, who gave another full show, demonstrating his outstanding musical skills.
Roger & Anne Travels 