Inside Maya Echo/Planeta.com

Inside Maya Echo
by Sandra Dayton

March/Marzo 1999

Maya Echo began in 1994 with the intention of becoming a bridge for both visitors and the local community in Puerto Morelos. Bringing people together to share in the rich history of the culture, tradition, fauna, flora, wildlife and native people. Letting the indigenous local people be the hosts of their culture and benefiting from it.

We are located in the town of Puerto Morelos, a small fishing village, 25 miles south of the Cancun airport. If you are coming to the Yucatan come see us or contact us.

Our office is at Amar Inn, a small bed and breakfast on the beach, it serves as an information center and gathering place for people arriving to the area interested in the Maya Route. The center is connected to other information centers in Belize, Guatemala, Chiapas. It is home to Lu'um K'aanab, a non-profit organization which concerns itself with the protection and conservation of the ecosystems in the area and offers beautiful hand embroidery and arts and crafts made from natural resources by the local Mayan women. Sundays during winter season, a delicious brunch is offered in the courtyard and the proceeds go to the non-profit organization for on going projects. Stop for a visit.

Phone/fax- (in Mexico) (987) 10136
(Abroad): 011-52-987-10136
Email: starseed@cancun.com.mx

Maya Echo offers:

A full day journey into the history and culture of the Maya. The day begins in the Botanical Gardens feeding the spider monkeys, learning about medicinal remedies and the ancient lifestyle of the Maya. The trees and plants provide all the resources the need to live: shelter, food. medicine, clothing, daily utensils. We journey into the tropical forest to visit a modern day Maya community. Be a guest in their homes and school and shop for hand embroidered articles made by the women to help support their small cottage industry. They will be your host and hostesses, showing you their way of life today. A secluded cenote awaits us for lunch and a swim. Our host will take us into the jungle to show us how he taps the Chicozapote tree for its resin to make chewing gun and teach us his secret ways of survival in the jungle.

This day journey is highly recommended for parents and their children visiting the area. Good for show and tell and school reports for children in school.

Sandra personally conducts this journey on a private basis. Lunch and refreshments included. This journey is conducted only by reservation.

Education: Spanish Language Classes

How many times have you been to a foreign place on vacation and promised yourself that when you got back home you would take a language?

Now you can take your vacation and learn a language while you are there. We make it easy and fun for you to speak spanish in a relaxed atmosphere. Study time can be spent in a hammock under a palm tree on the Caribbean. and socializing and practicing the spanish language wiht the locals.

* One and two week spanish language programs.
* Classes are kept small.
* Two hour classes in the morning.
* two hour classes in the afternoon.

Environmental Education Workshops

One week environmental workshops for teachers and students. First hand experiences learning about our 5 ecosystems, the reef, coastal lagoon, dunes, mangroves and tropical forest. All within a two mile radius. Our "Great Mayan Reef" has been a National Parque and 1997 is the International Year of the Reef. We work with biologists from the Marinelife of UNAM, and biologists form the Botanical Gardens who have the knowledge of the fauna flora.

Comfortable lodging and good food are provided.

Medicinal Plants Workshop - For Groups

From the very first contact between the Old and the New Worlds, European doctors recognized that the Indians held the key to the world's most sophisticated pharmacy. Medicine in most of the world at that time had not risen far above witchcraft and alchemy. The Indiana living in the Americas had refined a complex set of active drugs that produced physiological and not merely psychological effects in the patient. This abundance of new pharmaceutical agents became the basis for modern medicine and pharmacology.

We offer a four day workshop from Biologists and Maya Curanderos (healers) using the traditional medicinal remedies used by the Maya for centuries. These workshop sessions are help in the Botanical gardens. Preparations of tinctures, salves, soaps, shampoos, teas, will be part of your experience.

Group package includes lodging in Puerto Morelos, four days of workshops, including materials, transportation to and from workshop, a welcome dinner, 4 lunches, a full day of Maya history and culture and the jungle journey. Group leaders schedule workshops with Sandra.

Goddess Journey For Groups

Goddess worship of the Ancient Mother Ixchel was evident in the 16th century when the spanish invaded the Yucatan coast. Her reign as the most prominent female deity in the Maya world lasted over 900 years from classic to post classic, 600 A.D. - 1500 A.D. ancient Maya women from all over Mesoamerica made pilgrimages to Cozumel and Isla Mujers to honor the "Great Mother Goddess Ixchel."

Come and join the reactivating of the sacred path to this ancient goddess. Experience a special week for ceremonies, dances, meditations, gathering of plants for use in rituals and pilgrimages to Isla Mujeres and Cozumel. Women are being called to do their part for the manifestation of the feminine energy and to balance and harmonize the masculine and feminine.

Journey includes lodging on the beach in Puerto Morelos: daily breakfast, sweat lodge, purification and cleansing, trips and ceremonies to Isla Mujers and Cozumel, huipil ceremonial dress, some lunches and dinners.

Brochure

The Goddess Division of Maya Echo offers a selection of designs inspired by the Mayan culture. This colorful work is hand embroidered by Mayan women reflecting their appreciation of the nature that surrounds them. With the gentle guidance of their ancient Mother Goddess Ixchel, the women have formed various groups and proudly create the designs we offer you. This sustainable craft allows the women to stay at home taking care of family needs and pass on the knowledge of their culture.

What Does This Give The Women? - Hope!

A chance to earn money, feed their children, send them to school, buy them clothes and basic necessities of life, so they can work and stay at home to to care for their families. To have self esteem and pride in their work.

Maya Echo Vision

We want to create a center where the Maya women join together for workshops, for sharing their knowledge, for community exchange. We want the Maya women to become self sustainable with the natural resources that are available to them providing them with a good income to support their families. We need your help to accomplish these goals. Your purchase will bring us one step closer to our vision. Sandra Dayton runs Maya Echo and wrote the original version of this article for the August 1997 issue of Planeta. Email or visit the website: http://www.mhrn.org.uk/mayaecho

Also read Maya Echo - A Cultural Voyage - Mary Locke

PLANETA.COM GUIDES

Exploring the Mundo Maya

Mexican Ecotourism

Inside Maya Echo by Sandra Dayton