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Saturday, December 17, 2011

From The 'Sure, Why Not' Department

Hopefully, you're not one of those people that have bought into the notion that the world is going to end on December 21, 2012 because of the Mayan calendar. Hopefully, you have taken into account all the other end-of-the-world predictions that pop up on at least an annual basis that all end, inevitably, in the world stubbornly refusing to end.

Honestly, you don't think the Mayans wouldn't have just recycled the calendar once 2012 came around if they were still here? 2012 was so far in the distance relative to them that they probably just didn't care.

However, if you just can't resist worrying about it, the city of Tapachula, Mexico, down in Mayan territory near the Guatemalan border, is willing to shrug their shoulders and give you what you want. They don't have very much going for them as it is, being a crossing point for Central American migrants who then proceed to board a train that goes by the names "The Train of Death" and "The Beast" (which is a story all by itself, a much more substantive one, as reported here by Mariana van Zeller), so they figure they might as well set up a countdown clock and play along with statements like "It is hard to say what you will be able to see that day." It'll haul in some tourism dollars, and it's certainly more fun than dealing with the train, the people who get on it, and the people who fell off. (Did I mention that you have to ride on the outside of the train?)

Again. This really isn't a tourist town. At least not in the traditional sense of the word.

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