"Up Where We Belong"

An in-flight (i.e. on-eagle) camera, plus cameras high near the Burj Khalifa and low on the ground, make for an awesome footage.  I can only imagine the sophisticated navigation inside the eagle's brain, which probably beats that of people hands-down.
 

Ancient History Encyclopedia on the Mayans

Monte Alban, in the Oaxaca Valley of Mexico

The Maya are an indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The term 'Maya' comes from the ancient Yucatan city of Mayapan, the last capital of a Mayan Kingdom in the Post-Classic Period. The Maya people refer to themselves by ethnicity and language bonds such as Quiche in the south or Yucatec in the north. The `Mysterious Maya’ have fascinated the world since their `discovery’ in the 1840's by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood but, in reality, much of the culture is not that mysterious when understood.

From Ancient History Encyclopedia, shared publicly on Google+ 
 

Mike Elgan on Selling Iguana Meat

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Man caught smuggling iguana meat into the US from Mexico.

A man was caught smuggling the meat of 115 iguanas into the United States from Mexico, and was sentenced to two years in prison. Sounds to me like way too much time for the crime.

Iguana is a popular meat in Mexico and Central America.

I took the picture [above] a few years ago in El Salvador. It's a boy selling live iguanas for food by the side of the road. (That wad of cash in his hand is the $10 the kid talked me out of in exchange for allowing me to take his picture.)

By Mike Elgan, shared publicly on Google+
 

Tanya Mariposa on Racism in El Salvador

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There is racism in Central America, maybe is not so evident here in El Salvador because we the Salvadorans take it more as a joke. Since here we don´t have more "pure bloods" and in a same Salvadoran family you can see children of all the colours of skin and hair, we don´t understand very well what is so important about that.

There is racism in El Salvador, that's true, but it is far from the hate. Is something more soft, difficult to spot... but it is more evident in the resentful people with low self esteem. Always, the stupid loser lady/man who no one really likes is the one racist.

So, I'm Salvadoran...I have an opinion about the racist people. An opinion that I learned in El Salvador.....

Well-said, by Tanya Mariposa, shared publicly on Google+
 

Long Life in the Nicoya Peninsula (3)

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A senior Nicoyan woman relaxes for a portrait. After waking up at 4 a.m., she bakes tortillas for a couple of hours and walks five miles to the village to sell them. In addition to keeping hard at work, successful centenarians have a strong sense of purpose—a plan de vida for the Nicoyans. They feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good.

Reference: Blue Zone Photos: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.
 

Long Life in the Nicoya Peninsula (2)

Jose Guevara

Jose Guevara lives with his family on a small farm. He has spent most of his life riding horses and working in the fields but today he gets around on the back of his grandson's four wheeler. He is 105 years old.

"I wake up at 6 am, then I will get some corn and go and feed the chickens or the pig," he says.

"I eat, but not as much ... generally beef, a good cut of pork, rice and beans -- four meals that we never went without in my house, thank God."

Reference: Does this beach paradise hold the secret to long life?

Genetics and stress, diet based on plants and water with minerals, even faith and laughter seem to be the key factors for a long life.
 

Long Life in the Nicoya Peninsula (1)

Don Faustino

On Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, a roughly 80-mile-long finger of land south of the Nicaraguan border on the Pacific Coast, researchers identified a group of villages with a significantly higher rate of longevity than the rest of the country. Dan Buettner traveled there to explore what makes a Blue Zone in a developing country.

Centenarian Don Faustino and five generations of his family are pictured on the Nicoya Peninsula in 2007. Nicoyan centenarians tend to live with their families, and children or grandchildren provide support and a sense of purpose and belonging.

Reference: Blue Zone Photos: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.