CHAPINADAS

Holtun is a Mayan Archeological site that offers a contact with the Mayan legacy.  Located in the center of the Yaxha, Nakum and El Naranjo Triangle, Holtun offers visitors a contact with remains of the Mayan culture.  Holtun comes from the Mayan word "Hol" that means head and "Tun" that means stone.  This site was built from the Preclassic to the Late Classic Period of Mayan civilization.  The site has several structures that form a triangle.  It has 3 buildings placed over a platform, an acropolis, pyramides and a ball court.  This site also has two faces, one antropomorph and one zoomorph and also a tunnel with murals.  Experts in Archeology coincide that Holtun as a big and important site like Yaxha and Tikal but it has not been explore much.  Holtun is 60 kilometeres away form the Island of Flores.

The Jaguars that live in the Tikal National Park are studied and protected by conservationists who are trying to find ways to study and save this feline from extinction.  Preliminary studies indicate that in a ratio of seven kilometers, seven jaguars were observed.  The first face of the study was considered a success because it was revealed that Tikal provides an effective refuge and habitat for the jaguar.  According the Mayan Cosmology, the symbol of the jaguar played and important part.  They were known as "Balam" or "Chac" and were attributed the virtue of power.  Only people with authority used clothing made of jaguar skin.  The Maya believed that the sun god transformed himself into a jaguar at night to travel to the world of the death.  They also believed that their mottled skin represented the stars in universe.  It is for these reasons that the figure of jaguar appear in the Mayan scultures.  

The traditional dance of the Palo Ensebado is part of the festivities in San Luis, Peten.  This traditional dance is headed by Mayan Priests in the Blanco Mountains.  This ceremony begins on August 24h, with the participation of Queckchies and Mayas Mopan.  The participants go early in the morning to cut a valerio tree.  A week before this dance starts, five men go into the forrest to choose a suitable tree.  Before the tree is cut, the priests offer their apologies and ask for permission from the valerio tree to be cut.  When the tree is cut, the tree is carried by several men to a place to be debark and waxed. 

Between the 25 and 26th of August, the tree is climb for 6 young men.  The person that climbs it the highest is rewarded with money, licour and food that have to be shared with rest of competitors.  The six people to climb the tree are chosen and they should abstein from having sexual relations eigth days before the celebration.  These are the rules established by the Mayan Priests.  This tradition is practiced since 300 years ago.  During this celebration, it is also possible to see the Dances of the Moors and the Deer.

40,000 years ago, the Centro American territory was home and a pathway to giant animals.  In the las decade, the remains of prehistoric animals have been found in different places.  The mammoth and two other kinds of paquiderms are prehistoric animales related to the elephants.  The most recent remains found were of the dwarf mammoth in Santa Rosa. A crew of municipal workers of San Rafael Las Flores were digging new drains when they found the bones.  The crew didn’t realize that those were the remains of fossils and some of the bones were loss.  It is considerend that these bones are at least 35 to 40,000 years old.  The dwarf mammoth was a prehistoric animal that inhabited the north of the american continent and used the Central American Isthmus to reach South America.  There have been fossils found in different parts of Guatemala like Alta Verapaz, Zacapa, Peten, Chiquimula, Jutiapa, Guatemala and Huehuetenango but this is the first time that fossils have been found in the South. 

The government of Japan is very interested in positioning Guatemala as the center of cultura Maya.  Many Japanese turists travel to the area every year to get to know the old traditions of the Maya.  Japan Airlines and the Japan Association of Travel Agents see a lot of potential in the area.  In the last few years, the interest of Japanese turist has increased to explore the many archeological sites of the Mayan culture but many times they prefer to go to Mexico and don’t get to visit other places.  Guatemala, because of its cultural riches could become the entry point to Central America because there are many turistic attractives in the area.  Guatemala is the prefered turistic place for Japanese turists.