Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose

Today, we decided to check out the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose.

The museum is not very large but houses many original artifacts from ancient Egypt.
The buildings look very new and well-decorated.

Alex and Inna touched some ancient Egyptian artifacts inside the museum, including stones from the Pyramid of Djoser - the first Egyptian pyramid (over 5,000+ years old) and an antique storage vase.

All kinds of statues, sarcophagi, papyrus, and other ancient items are on display.

Here is a miniature replica of the first Egyptian pyramid - the Pyramid of Djoser, built during the 27th century BC for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser by Imhotep.

There is a full-size replica of the Tutankhamun Sarcophagus.

Egyptians mummified their pets and favorite animals, including cats.

We got to explore a replica of an Egyptian tomb. Inside, it's very dark, and there are multiple levels.

At the very bottom, where the sarcophagus is buried, there are a lot of pictures on the wall describing the deceased patron's life.

An excellent pictorial of the "Weighing of the Heart" is on the tomb's walls.
According to Wikipedia:

The Weighing of the Heart was a ritual of judgement from the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead describes how, after death, a person would enter the Duat, or underworld, and deal with many challenges there. At some point in their journey through the Duat, the deceased would be led by the god Anubis into the 'Hall of the Two Ma'ats'. There he would recite the 'Negative Confession' in the presence of a number of divine judges, pleading his innocence of up to 42 sins. After this confession, the deceased's heart—representing their intellect and personality—would be weighed against the goddess Ma'at, representing truth and justice, and often represented by her symbol of a feather. If the scales balanced, this meant the deceased had led a good life. Anubis would take them to Osiris and they would find their place in the afterlife, becoming maa-kheru, meaning "vindicated" or "true of voice".^[1] If the heart was out of balance with Ma'at, then another fearsome beast called Ammit, the Devourer, stood ready to eat it and put the dead person's afterlife to an early and unpleasant end

The person awaiting judgment had to answer "No" to the following 42 questions to be admitted to the afterlife:

1. I have not committed sin.
2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men and women.
5. I have not stolen grain.
6. I have not purloined offerings.
7. I have not stolen the property of the god.
8. I have not uttered lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not uttered curses.
11. I have not committed adultery.
12. I have not lain with men.
13. I have made none to weep.
14. I have not eaten the heart [i.e I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
15. I have not attacked any man.
16. I am not a man of deceit.
17. I have not stolen cultivated land.
18. I have not been an eavesdropper.
19. I have slandered [no man].
20. I have not been angry without just cause(?).
21. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have terrorised none.
24. I have not transgressed [the Law].
25. I have not been wroth.
26. I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
27. I have not blasphemed.
28. I am not a man of violence.
29. I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
30. I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
31. I have not pried into matters.
32. I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
33. I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
35. I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
36. I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger).
37. I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
38. I have not acted with arrogance(?).
39. I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
40. I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
41. I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
42. I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god.^[3]

Read More

Xcaret, Cancun, Mexico

Today, we took the shuttle from Barcelo Maya Palace Deluxe Hotel in Riviera Maya to Xcaret eco-park in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

According to Wikipedia:

Xcaret is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the modern-day state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. The site was occupied by thepre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation and an important Maya trading center. Some of the site's original structures are contained within a modern-day tourism development, the privately owned Xcaret Eco Park.

Xcaret means "small inlet" in Mayan.^[2] Its name comes from its situation next to a small inlet that in the past served as a strategic location for navigation and commerce for the Maya. The original name of the site was p'ole', from the root p'ol that means "merchandise" or "deal of merchants", which gives an idea of the economical relevance of the site. 

According to our guidebook, the Butterfly Pavilion should be viewed early in the morning, so we decided to head there. While on the way there, we got lost and ended up in the Mayan Village. There were many caves, streams, and rocks with few signs of where to go next.

There are a few narrow underground rivers for snorkeling.

We also saw several colorful parrots and underground animals, mostly raccoons. Inna even saw a small snake (but I missed it).

There are some traditional Mayan burial places with skulls and skeletons lying around. Just charming. Not!

And here is a picture of the Mayan Village from the outside.

Is this skeleton's face supposed to frighten me?

A few of the snorkelers were swimming nearby.

From the Mayan Village, we ran right into the Mexican Cemetery. It looked a lot happier than I expected. Mexicans view death as a transition into a more comfortable afterlife.

I can't say I enjoyed going to a cemetery until this one.

Yes, this is still a cemetery and not an art museum.

This Mexican Cemetery features 7 levels (one for each day of the week) and 365 plots (one for each day of the year). It's pretty elaborate.

From the cemetery, we walked to the St. Francis of Assisi Chapel. It's an outdoor chapel made out of wood.

As we neared the Butterfly Pavilion, we ran into Jaguar Island, where large cats roam.

Good little kitty.

Eventually, we made it to the Butterfly Pavilion. It was adorable, we saw many hundreds of butterflies.

There are lots of butterflies flying around.

Here is a short video of various butterflies in the Butterfly Pavilion.



After visiting the Butterfly Pavilion, we walked back to our lockers. On the way there, we ran into the Stained Glass Plaza and some fascinating cenotes.

While we walked to our lockers, we ran into a few fascinating animals, including iguanas, tapirs, pink flamingos, raccoons, and spider monkeys.

We saw so many iguanas that we no longer paid attention to them. They were everywhere.

Here is a hungry Tapir. We saw a few being fed.

The raccoon was excited to see people around. However, he was quickly bored when he saw that we did not bring food.

The spider monkeys were relatively fast climbers and seemed human-like.

There were also ancient Mayan Ruins all around. I don't know what these buildings were supposed to be during Mayan times.

We stowed our bags and picked up our snorkeling gear. There are two branches to the underground river at Xcaret, and we snorkeled both branches.

There were many different cenotes and caverns to explore. There were also some brightly colored fish to see.

There are some exciting mangroves to explore here.



The underground river looks treacherous in places but is really safe and not very deep at all.

With an outlook to the Caribbean Sea, the beach was at the river's end. We decided to take a short break and rest.

Alex and Inna enjoyed the cool shade and swinging in the hammocks.



There is a neat sign with directions to most countries and cities worldwide.

The Beach of Xcaret - overlooking the Caribbean Sea - has some water holes where geysers shoot up. During heavy seas, the spray can be seen going up relatively high.

After swimming on both branches of the underground river, we decided to get lunch at the "La Cocina" Mexican restaurant that was recommended by our bus driver. The food there was the best Mexican we've ever had (despite being a buffet). All of the food was freshly prepared and delicious! It was definitely one of the highlights of Xcaret.

After lunch, we walked back to the Orchid Pavilion. A few flowers were in bloom, so we were a bit disappointed.

Afterward, we decided to see the famous Papantla Flying Men - a Mayan troop flying around a pole to ask the sun god for rain and a good harvest. Their performance started at 3:00 p.m., and we sat on the benches.

Afterward, we went to lounge around the beach. Alex decided to try rafting on a small ocean inlet.

He then climbed all over the canoes.

We spent the rest of our day lounging and resting on the beach.

Our Xcaret Espectacular show was scheduled for 7:00 p.m. We changed our clothes and hurried to dinner. The dinner was not very good, and the service was prolonged. I would not purchase the dinner again.

The building housing the show is quite lovely and has waterfalls.

The show was not bad overall. There were over 300 performers with elaborate costumes.

The first part of the show tells of ancient Mayans, their ball game, and the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadors.

\

After the intermission, the show's second part illustrates various Mexican federated states.

When the show ended around 9:00 p.m., we returned to our bus for our short ride to Barcelo Maya Palace. We had a great day at Xcaret and hope to be back.

Read More