Survivor: Guatemala

soccercruiser87

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the new survivor location....i hope the new one is as good if not better than the previous survivors....sounds like its going to be interesting, cant wait :)

CBS announces 'Survivor 11' to film in Mayan ruins, be titled 'Survivor: Guatemala'

By Steve Rogers, 05/16/2005

CBS has announced that this fall's upcoming eleventh installment of its Survivor franchise will take place in Guatemala and be titled Survivor: Guatemala, The Maya Empire.

The network made the announcement at the conclusion of last night's Survivor: Palau finale, with Survivor host Jeff Probst presenting a Survivor: Guatemala preview that stated that Guatemala will drop the competition's cast size back to eighteen (compared to the twenty featured in Palau) and, for the first time in a Survivor series, require its castaways to live in the ruins of a vanished civilization.

The preview also stated that the castaways would be "forced to embrace the ancient Maya lifestyle" after being "marooned within this mystical and rugged terrain" -- with the exact meaning of the comments no doubt intended to remain intentionally vague until the show's September 2005 debut.

Despite CBS's secrecy, thanks to the announcements of Guatemalan authorities, some additional details of the show's location have emerged -- starting with the fact that not all of the country's government offices appear to have been in favor of allowing some of their ancient ruins to serve as an exotic set for the latest edition of Mark Burnett's long-running reality show. According to Guatemalan reports, the country's federal government announced in late April that they had reached -- over the objections of the government's Ministry of Culture office -- a controversial agreement to allow the show to film in the Mayan ruins located within the country's Yaxhá national park.

The decision appears to be controversial primarily due to the fact that unlike the nearby UNESCO-protected Tikal ruins site, the ruins at Yaxhá are still being restored, with archaeologists still excavating and restoring the structures, plazas, and causeways that comprise the ruins.

However despite the ruin's status, Guatemala's el Periódico newspaper reported that the country's National Council of Protected Areas office authorized the show to film in the area, as long as the show's producers agreed to stipulations that the castaways would not be allowed to hunt any game and that they would exhibit care with regard to protecting the area's ecosystem.

But based on a quote in el Periódico's story, the National Council of Protected Areas office's decision appears to have been based on a less than full understanding of the show's requirements, with Ana Luisa Noguera, the National Council of Protected Areas Executive Secretary who issued the letter granting the show access to the park, telling the newspaper that she'd never seen the program, but had been told that "only eighteen people will enter the park, plus the cameraman."

Meanwhile, at least one of the organization's staffers appears to be quite familiar with the fact that the show is likely to utilize upwards of 200 cast and crew members during the May 18-August 10 period during which the northern Guatemala park will be closed to the public -- and he still doesn't see it a problem.

Protesters of the government's decision have cited the fact that so many people will have exclusive access to the area for so long (57 days) as a potentially damaging scenario, however Vinicio Montero, the regional director for the National Council of Protected Areas office in Petén, doesn't think that will be an issue, telling the paper (in spanish) that there are already over 220 people involved with the existing restoration efforts working and living in the area. As such, "having others [such as the Survivor cast and crew] live here will not have an additional negative effect."

Featuring a twin pyramid complex, nine acropolis and more than 500 structures, the Yaxhá site is located on the shore of crocodile-infested Lake Yaxhá, with the ruins on the edge of a lagoon.

Personnel from the Ministry of Culture, the National Council for Protected Areas, and Guatemalan Tourist Institution will all reportedly supervise the filming. However despite the supervison, they don't anticipate any problems, with one government representative even commenting (in spanish) that "the problems that threaten Yaxhá today seem more likely to be caused by Guatemalans than by foreigners" -- an apparent allusion to the native looting that has plagued the sites for decades.

source: www.realitytvworld.com
 
I saw the preview Sunday night..it looks like it's gonna be fun!
 
Sounds great!! :Pinkbounc I'm gonna be bummin tomorrow night with no Survivor to watch. :sad2:
 
I'm not gonna' watch anymore until it is Survivor:Antarctica or Survivor:Everest.

Let 'em try someplace COLD ............
 

I visited some real Mayan ruins when I was down in Cancun. I wonder how "authentic" they will keep some of the challanges. :teeth:

I remember standing on the edge of a giant pit where they threw the Virgins and visiting the football sized field where they fought to the death.

Could be for a very interesting show......
 
JimB. said:
I'm not gonna' watch anymore until it is Survivor:Antarctica or Survivor:Everest.

Let 'em try someplace COLD ............

I don't think that's gonna happen. Too many guys watch to see the babes in bikini's (or the Coby's in their speedos). :rotfl:
 
I was liking the idea until they said the ruins they're going to be living in aren't fully explored yet. That's archaeological evidence that they could be seriously threatening. :( As an armchair archaeologist, that's irritating.

That said, I still think the show sounds *neat*, and the locale really cool!

Kim -- that would be a cenote (though I'm not sure I'm spelling it right -- natural sinkhole type things that are full of water), and they also threw tributes to the gods (pottery especially) as well. They believed that the way to the underworld was through the water, so the cenotes were viewed as a way to reach their dead ancestors and to appael to the gods of the underworld for one reason or another.

As for the field -- most of those were actual ballcourts, with a game played similar to soccer today. They had big stone rings like basketball hoops only vertical instead of horizontal, and if I remember correctly, they were supposed to get the balls (similar to soccer balls) through those hoops without using their hands.

The losers were sacrificed to the gods.

It actually wasn't just a Mayan game, but dated back at least to the Olmecs, one of the earliest known civilizations in Mesoamerica.

(Can you tell I just finished a school project on the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico? LOL!)
 
Rajah said:
(Can you tell I just finished a school project on the Pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico? LOL!)

I was thinking, whoa, they are SUPER smart. ;)
 
LOL! Well, I've always loved archaeology, especially for the Anasazi (now called Ancestral Puebloans) of the American Southwest, and for the ancient cultures of Mexico and Central America. Add to that the 2-semester team project where "my" cultures were primarily the Maya and Olmec...

Perfect timing for me to LOVE Survivor Guatemala!
 
Let 'em try someplace COLD

1. I like to see the girls in bikinis as posted above.

2. If it is the fall survivor that goes into winter, do you really want to be reminded of how cold it is. Yea lets just turn on the TV and freeze our butts of. :rotfl:
 
JimB. said:
I'm not gonna' watch anymore until it is Survivor:Antarctica or Survivor:Everest.

Let 'em try someplace COLD ............

That is what my sister says all the time.

The show is called SURVIVOR. Are we all supposed to believe that the only people who need to "survive" are only stranded on tropical islands?

I want an obese Survivor. Let's see how well us chubby's can survive on coconut and fish. :teeth:
 
tubaman said:
So is this gonna be the official Survivor: Guatemala thread?

as of right now yes, but usually when the season begins to get closer there tends to be more than a couple threads :earsboy:
 
tubaman said:
So is this gonna be the official Survivor: Guatemala thread?

Do we take a vote or something? :teeth:
 
DW and I visited Tikal a few years ago, so we are very fired up about next season. In fact we were thinking that it was Tikal while watching the previews, so it's a little disappointing to hear that it's not. But only a little.
 
Actually what they were showing in the previews I'm pretty sure was Tikal as well. I think they were just showing a regional thing rather than the exact site where the castaways would be stranded.
 
Did you see the weather channel May 18. The first hurrican of the season is going to bear down on Guatamala this weekend. They said it is a rare occurence, but Hurrican Season officially started May 1.
 
OhMari said:
Did you see the weather channel May 18. The first hurrican of the season is going to bear down on Guatamala this weekend. They said it is a rare occurence, but Hurrican Season officially started May 1.

I could have sworn it started June 1st. In Tallahassee there was a big sign counting down the days until it started and it was for June 1st at least for the Atlantic and Gulf....now for the Pacific I have no idea.
 
Disney1fan2002 said:
That is what my sister says all the time.

The show is called SURVIVOR. Are we all supposed to believe that the only people who need to "survive" are only stranded on tropical islands?

I want an obese Survivor. Let's see how well us chubby's can survive on coconut and fish. :teeth:

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Yeah, they should mix things up a bit! I'm tired of seeing the perfect bodies out there...especially when I'm sitting there with my bag of oreos and my diet coke!! :teeth:
 


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