OK, I may have broken protocol on blogs, but I just went back and "enhanced" the previous entry. I picked a few pictures from the trip I described and added them to the blog, to show a small glimpse of what I was describing.
I'll also note that while I'm very glad we did what we did, I think next time I'd take a "land tour". We just didn't have time at the sites to see everything, especially in Tulum. It was about 1 1/2 hour drive there and then 1 1/2 hour back. We spent probably less than 30 minutes at the actual site.
I ran around snapping photos and checking out the buildings while the guide walked the group around. I'd check back in to hear bits and pieces of the guide's tour, and then would dash off to see something that I could tell we weren't going to be able to see if I stayed with the tour.
I guess that made it exciting to be on the run, but it was also troubling to be so rushed.
I've been told that on the land tours you not only spend more time, but you also see more sites.
BTW, while there, our guide explained how a NASA photo interpreter figured out that plants that grow on limestone show up differently on infra-red photography than other plants. He began an orbital search over Central America and has found dozens of new ruins. There is now the beginnings of an explosion in searching for new sites. I saw a commercial for a documentary on this topic, coming up on the History Channel that I'm interested in seeing...
Our LDS guide also pointed out that Brigham Young once said that science would one day prove the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and that we are coming close to the day that that becomes true. I did a quick search on
http://farms.byu.edu/, but haven't found a source to authenticate that Brigham Young actually said that. If someone posts it to the "comments" section, I'd be interested.
Thanks
Read the original "Lines of our Times" post here.