Mexico: The real star of world's end day was the new president

Mexico: The real star of world’s end day was the new president

By Catherine Watson

Dec. 24, 2012 12 AM PT

They didn’t teach me this in journalism school, but no news gets old faster than a world that doesn’t end on cue.

In Mexico‘s Yucatan, the real news on Dec. 21 wasn’t the 16,000 world-enders who convened at Chichén Itzá or the thousands who flocked to Tulum and Palenque and other ancient Maya ruins for the solstice.

What trumped the end of the world — and tangled traffic all over central Merida — was a visit from Mexico’s youthful president, Enrique Peña Nieto. He came to Merida to inaugurate a dramatic new Maya museum here and to announce a new trans-Yucatan railroad that will start running in 2014.

Advance security for Peña Nieto’s visit included barricaded streets and a half-dozen army trucks full of machine gun-bearing soldiers parked in front of the main cathedral the night before.

Gun barrels and Christmas lights — that was so intriguing I almost gave up my plans to spend Dec. 21 in the ruins of Uxmal, Chichén Itzá’s major rival. In the end, I chose mysticism over politics and went to peaceful Uxmal.

When I got back to Merida late that night, the soldiers, the barricades and the president were gone, and downtown was back to Friday-night normal.

Music and laughter poured out of the little bars and restaurants; souvenir sellers were working the sidewalks. Hammocks! Panama hats! Shawls from Chiapas! People from preteens to grandparents were strolling the central square.

It all felt like a party, which was fitting.

This was the last night of two Maya calendars: The 13^th baktun, which ran 400 years, and the mind-boggling cycle of the Long Count, which was within a couple of hours of completing 5,125 years.

I had a flight back to the U.S. before dawn, but the scene was so happy, I couldn’t say goodbye.

It was 1:30 Saturday morning when I finally got to bed – and 3:30 Saturday morning when I had to get up. Grogginess aside, though, my only real problem was that my camera had suddenly malfunctioned.

“I think I lost half my trip pictures,’’ I told my best friend when he picked me up at the airport at home.

“Don’t worry, sweetie,’’ he said. “It’s not the end of the world.’’

He wasn’t kidding.