 And this is Adam Navas. Hello, Liz. Hi, Adam. Today we are going to have a real conversation in English about the program, The Ancient City of Chichen Itza. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to that program yet, you can find it on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. Or you can, and there you can actually listen to the program and read along with the script. You can also find it here on YouTube as well. And of course, all of those links are in the program description below. So be sure to check out that program. And Adam, are you ready to talk about The Ancient City of Chichen Itza? I am actually very excited to talk about it. Good, awesome. So just to kind of refresh our memories, I wanted to tell a little bit about what this program is about. Give a little summary. So of course, Chichen Itza is an ancient city in southern Mexico, and it was built by the Maya people almost 3,000 years ago, which is pretty incredible. So right now it's just in ruins. They were really advanced in their technology. So, and I'm sure we'll talk about this later, but they had an interest in studying the stars and they used the number zero, which was not really common at that time and they had a really exact calendar. So they had all this, they had an interest in studying and gaining knowledge. And then they were invaded by the Itza people and that's where the city gets its name. I think it's by the mouth of the river Itza that it means, but they all left after a time and no one knows why, which I think is also a very interesting point. And then today it's a tourist spot, probably not at this moment with the pandemic, hopefully winding down. I don't imagine they have a lot of visitors right now, but it's a tourist spot with typically about a million people going through there a year. So yeah, that program really talks about the history of that city and what it is today. Yeah, I think it's a fascinating program. One of the things that I think a little differently about this program than some of our other programs is it is very, how do I say this? It really helps to go to our website because seeing some pictures of this will give you a really good sense of, if you've just watched this or listened to it, kind of finding out a little more about what it looks like because the descriptions of course are wonderful, but the pictures really kind of fill out the picture, don't you think? Yeah, especially the program opens with this description of when you stand in front of the pyramid, right? And you see the snake of light kind of going up as the sun rises. So it's got stairs on each side going up and each, I believe it's each minute, it goes up, like the sun goes up one step, but you can see this snake sort of climbing up and that is just something that seeing and hearing about are so different, right? Yeah. I don't think we have a video of it doing that, but at least to see the stairs, you can imagine what it might look like doing that. No, it reminded me, I don't know if I've ever told you this story that I've never been to these ruins, but I went to some similar ruins in southern Mexico, probably a few hundred miles south of these. And it is amazing to think about what life was like, that there were people like you and me who lived and their whole life, this was their world, thousands and thousands of people. This was not a small tribe of people. No, no. I don't know how, wait a minute, we obviously don't know how many or how long this city existed, but it would be like a major city today, just being, everyone leaving, it's just, it's nutty. Well, and that we have no idea why they left. Like, people have studied this and they've tried to figure it out, but it says in the program that basically they were conquered by the Spanish and then most of those records were destroyed. So I don't know, there's something in me that is so, I am a record keeper. I love to keep records and write down why things happened and learn about stuff that way. And to not have that information just makes me want it even more. Yeah. Well, an interesting thing that the government of Mexico was doing, well, and I don't, this is not a bad thing, in this series of ruins, and there was pyramids and whatnot, is because of where they were situated, the, I don't know if jungle is the right word, they had to clear out the jungle. It grew so over these ruins, they would slowly, so that they could announce, hey, we've got a new section, come on back, check it out. But to think about how long these ruins were abandoned and just sat there and what else is out there? I mean, our world is so big that to discover a major city like this, I just wanna know, what was life like? It's kind of like our ideas about life back then. Is it just us back then or is it accurate? What did we get right? What did we get wrong? Were they Mayan ruins? Were they Mayan ruins that you? I believe they were. Yeah. I mean, that would make sense if they were so close, they were probably part of the Maya culture. Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things, picking up on your point of how we just don't know how life was back then, one of my favorite, well, maybe not favorite descriptions in this program is how there is some sort of like ball court, but they don't know exactly what was played there, right? But probably something like football, not American football, like what we would call soccer. Yeah. And there are pictures of games on the sides of the court, but also there is a picture of an official beheading a person. So like they don't know exactly. Like was it part of the game, or was it like somebody did something wrong? Was it the winner of the game? Was it the loser of the game? I hope it's not the winner. I don't think you'd want to win. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, unless you were excited to, I don't know, be a sacrifice. Yeah. I don't know, Adam. I'm just saying that. I know, we all have, we, I think there is a honoring of people who have sacrificed either it's in war or your service to save someone from a building that's on fire. And we do put up memorials. And so maybe it's, maybe there was that element. Like you were a hero, and they just wanted to say, okay, you're a hero forever. Right, yeah, exactly. Who knows? But like thinking of, like you were saying, thinking of being a person in that court, maybe not playing. I'm not very sporty. I probably wouldn't be playing the football game. But I might be watching, thinking as a person who's like, observing that game, like we go to games like that today. We go to, I go to baseball games. I don't really go to other games, but, and just being a part of that as a culture. Like there are lots of cultures that do that same thing. Well then of course, we could think about 3000 years into the future. Like if our society just stopped, and trees grew up and plants took over and people started to find our houses and our buildings and our cities, what would they think about us? These big stadiums where people played sports, and a lot of sports teams are like lions and fierce animals. So like what would they think? Would they think they're actual lions fighting or? Yeah. I don't know. Okay so this leads into one of my favorite things ever, which is like dystopian future media. So usually like a television show or a book. So you have to explain the word dystopian. Yes. Okay so basically it's what Adam is describing right now. It's what you're describing right now. Like imagine that all life on earth just ceases or there's a big disaster or a catastrophe that many people have to sort through or live through. And so you see it in maybe like zombie movies or after a huge flood or fires or anything like that. So it's, I guess- But it's also opposed to utopia, which is everything's great. Everything's, you might have had a disaster, but everything's good. Dystopian is not so good. Yeah, everything's not so great. So and how people survive after that. I mean I don't, maybe it's a good thing to think about Chichen Itza. You know what happened there that sort of went on? Did they have a pandemic? Yeah, that's a good point. I mean maybe there would be pictures of, maybe they would have left pictures of something else. Did they all just travel away somewhere else? Yeah. Are we gonna find- Yeah, it's a good question. Did aliens come from outer space? What? The aliens come from outer space and take them away. I think there's a documentary about that. And maybe they built the pyramids too. Yeah, that's kind of advanced technology. You know, we do have a program about that. It's about ancient structures. I'm not sure if Chichen Itza is mentioned in that, in that program, but that is a very interesting program. That ancient structures program, because like you said, there are a lot of people who are like pyramids were built by aliens. And the Maya were actually people from another planet who came to visit here and then left. And that's why Chichen Itza is abandoned. I think there are some fascinating, when I see some, and I'm trying to remember if they're like the Romans civilization or Greeks who built walls with blocks that just fit perfectly in line and there's nothing holding them but gravity and they're just super solid and. Oh, right, yeah. It is amazing what people were able to do. Without Facebook or YouTube. I know. I can't do anything without those. Imagine if we didn't have Facebook or YouTube. Well, let's not imagine without YouTube. We like talking to you this way, but. Ha ha ha. Exactly. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. We have a program about that too, Adam, about social media, is it good or bad? Yeah. We got a program on everything. We do. We should change our name to Spotlight. We got a program about that. Yeah, that's our tagline. Yeah. Awesome. Well, we would love to hear what you have to say if you have ever visited Chichen Itza or other ruins or if there are ruins in your country, in your area, and what you thought about them or maybe even just, do you like dystopian novels and TV shows? Yeah, you have a good recommendation for us. Because I gotta say, I will talk about dystopian novels and TV shows for a long, long time. Fair enough. Yeah, anyway, so you can find us on Facebook, Twitter, our website, www.spotlightenglish.com and obviously here on YouTube. If you haven't subscribed yet, be sure to subscribe and then hit the little bell so you never miss an episode. Until next time, we hope you listen, watch, practice, and learn. Spotlight out.