SEMINARS

[These trips will be available when Camp Toucan starts operating.]

Bacalar is in a region of fascinating culture, nature, and history. These seminars allow you to explore and discuss these topics in more depth than is possible in the course of day-trips and other activities.

Many visitors would have trouble understanding a seminar in Spanish, even if they speak enough Spanish for usual travel purposes. Therefore the seminars are in English. Participants who speak English as a second language are welcome to join.

The teacher starts the seminar by asking what background each participant already has, and what aspects of the topic they would like to better understand. The teacher then provides an overview of the topic, with those preferences in mind. After that overview, it’s time for questions and answers, in a somewhat Socratic manner, so participants can ask further about the aspects of the topic that they would like to explore further.

WEEKLY SCHEDULE:

There is a different seminar on each day of the week, Monday through Friday. You can go to all five of them, or pick the ones you want to attend. The seminars start at 9:00 am, in an open-air space covered by a roof, near the plaza, so you hear the birds and feel the tropical breezes as you learn. (Please note the different starting times for different Camp Toucan activities, due to the different activities involved.) During the morning there are breaks for drinks and small snacks, and there are varied activities such as viewing relevant pictures and short videos. Lunch is included at 1 pm, and participants from the Folk Dancing and Spanish classes join us for lunch. During and after lunch, there are music sing-alongs in Spanish, with the words shown on song-sheets that you will receive. After the music time, the Spanish teachers lead a walk to nearby interesting places, pointing out memorable objects and actions in Spanish, to help participants remember those words. The walk ends at the lakeshore, where you can wade and swim with the others, or rest and converse in the shade. We’ll head back to the plaza in time for Social Hour with our fellow travelers, over a drink and an appetizer (which is included, and your drink can have alcohol or not as you choose).

Monday: Seminar 1, Welcome to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and Latin America. After Columbus first encountered “Indians” on an island in the Bahamas, his trip set in motion perhaps the largest and longest conflict in human history. This seminar first discusses how the natives of the Americas lived shortly before Columbus, what they believed, how they governed themselves, and how they interacted with each other over long distances. We will ask such things as why the native word for the region of Chile has the same sound, and the same meaning, as the English word chilly. And also why the Mayan word xoc has the same sound, and the same meaning, as the English word shark. Then we will discuss the imperial goals of Spain and other nations, throughout the Caribbean and Latin America, from the time of Columbus to the “Generation of 1898” in Spain. This will lead to a thoughtful comparison of various wars for independence, from Haiti in 1791, to Chile in 1827, to the nations that are still under European rule today. After that the focus turns to Yucatan and the War of the Castes, which was a devastating tragedy from 1847 up to the 1930s, less than a century ago. The seminar concludes with a comparison of Latin American governments within recent decades, from Castro in Cuba, to Allende in Chile, to the current headline-making presidents and politics in Mexico, El Salvador, and Argentina. Participants will receive several pages of related illustrations, and a bibliography of good websites, articles, and books on these topics.

Tuesday: Seminar 2, Pirates of the Caribbean. There’s quite a mythology regarding adventurous pirates, so here we discuss how that developed, as part of our exploration of the history and politics of piracy worldwide, focused on the Caribbean and places from the Caribbean to Chile. This seminar includes an unhurried visit to the pirate fortress and museum in Bacalar, next to the plaza. (Participants should wear flat, safety-minded shoes, due to the bumpy stone floors and steps in the fortress.) The museum shows mostly British pirates, attacking mostly Spanish colonies such as Bacalar, so we will discuss why that was so, and how piracy still relates to international politics today. We’ll also discuss questions such as how the pirates got from the Caribbean to Bacalar (and other towns some distance from the sea), since the waterways were too shallow for ships. Participants will receive several pages illustrating aspects of pirate practices centuries ago, and a bibliography of good websites, videos, articles, and books on the subject.

Wednesday: Seminar 3, Mayan Astronomy and Religion. While in Bacalar you can easily imagine how the ancient Mayans spent many warm, tropical nights in their rooftop observatories, developing their precise records and predictions of the long-term movements of the stars and the planets. In those times, their understanding of these things was the most advanced in the world. In this seminar we explore how they made such accurate and long-term predictions – without telescopes, computers, or even pen and paper. We ask why they linked astronomical events such as solstices to spiritual symbols such as a snake with feathers. We consider questions such as why they assigned a color to each of the four cardinal directions, and revered feathers, the same as Native Americans in the midwestern United States. We will compare their temples, pyramids, and symbolism to the ancient pyramids of the midwestern U.S., Egypt, India, and Indonesia, and discuss possible connections around the world. Participants will receive several pages of celestial and spiritual illustrations, and links to good places for further illustrations, videos, articles, and books.

Thursday: Seminar 4, Flora and Fauna of Yucatan, on Land and Water. The Yucatan Peninsula is about the same size as a typical midwestern U.S. state such as Kansas or Nebraska, and it’s roughly half the size of European countries such as Germany and Spain, but it’s densely packed with tropical trees and animals of many sorts. On land there are jaguars (both spotted jaguars and black panthers), tapirs, toucans (sometimes seen in Bacalar), monkeys, and insects such as stingless honeybees, living among large ceiba trees, chicle-producing trees, trees bearing tropical fruits and unusual flowers, and numerous climbing vines. In the rivers, lakes, and bays of the ocean there are lobsters, conches, octopuses, manta rays, sharks, sea turtles, and crocodiles, living among saltwater reefs and freshwater stromatolites. In this illustrated seminar we discuss how these striking creatures live their lives and interact with each other, and with the trees, plants, and humans of the peninsula. We sample local snacks such as honey from stingless bees, unusual fruits from local trees, and (of course) unusual forms of chocolate. Participants will receive several pages of colorful illustrations, and links to good places for further illustrations, videos, articles, and books.

Friday: Seminar 5, Mayan Language for Visitors. This is your chance to learn some of the Yucatec Mayan language, which today is the most widely spoken of all the native languages in North and South America. (You already know a few words that came from it, such as hammock, toucan, hurricane, avocado, and chocolate.) Throughout Yucatan there are countless place names, food names, and animal names in this language, but what do they mean? This seminar is taught in the same natural language-learning way as Camp Toucan Spanish classes – by illustration and demonstration, rather than by translating from one language to another. (So it doesn’t matter whether you speak Spanish or English – the seminar is almost all in Yucatec Mayan anyway. The few times that translation is needed, it’s to both Spanish and English.) You will see illustrations of what a Mayan word means, hear how it is pronounced, and see how it is written, all at the same time. Then the teacher will add other Mayan words (also duly illustrated) to form new combinations, to reinforce the words you already know, while presenting them in new contexts, which you will understand by that point. Referring to a map of the Yucatan peninsula, the teacher will show you with illustrations what the place names mean, and you will hear how they are pronounced. The teacher will do the same for the commonly-used food names and animal names. By the end of the seminar, you will be able to answer some basic questions in Yucatec Mayan, and you will have a whole new level of appreciation for the Mayan (and Native American) world that silently accompanies you, all your life.