Globe Trekker: Yucatán, Belize, and Guatemala

True or False?

______1. There are still some six million Mayan Indians.

______2. Mérida is the capital of Yucatán.

______3. The Maya religion forbade the playing of ball games.

______4. The Maya invented the zero.

______5. Buses in the Yucatán follow a strict schedule and are almost always on time.

______6. Tulum has Mayan ruins but no beaches.

______7. Tulum means “City of Dawn” in the Mayan language.

______8. “Voladores” or “flyers” are men who swing around a pole at the end of a rope, thereby lowering themselves from a great height.

______9. Spanish is the official language of Belize.

_____ 10. The population of Belize is almost entirely “white.”

_____ 11. The music of the Garifuna people is based on African rhythms.

_____ 12. While in Belize, Justine goes scuba diving.

_____ 13. Caracol is a Mayan site easily reached by a new highway.

_____ 14. The ancient Maya buried their dead under the living room floor.

_____ 15. Caracol, unlike other Maya cities, did not fight constant wars.

_____ 16. Many German-speaking Mennonites live in Belize.

_____ 17. Tikal is in the Petén jungle of Belize, not far from Guatemala. _____ 18. Over half the population of Guatemala consists of pure-blooded Indians descended from the Maya.

_____ 19. Tikal, unlike other Mayan cities, was never abandoned by its people.

_____ 20. Guatemala City is the largest city in Central America.

_____ 21. Quiché is an old type of Spanish and is not a Mayan language.

_____ 22. In the highland areas of Guatemala both men and women usually wear traditional, brightly-colored dress.

_____ 23. The Pan American Highway in Guatemala is the country’s first four lane “superhighway.”

_____ 24. Justine attends the show of a traveling circus from El Salvador.

_____ 25. Villages around Lake Atitlán are named after the twelve Apostles.

_____ 26. Mariano is a Guatemalan artist or painter.

_____ 27. The indigenous (Indian) people of Guatemala are the country’s richest group.

_____ 28. Weaving by hand is an important craft in Guatemala.

_____ 29. At Easter Antiguans make elaborate flower “alfombras” (carpets).

_____ 30. Justine climbs a dormant, inactive volcano.