And while that young business owner is banking on future growth - followers of the 2012 Apocalypse narrative wonder if there will be a future.
It's no joke, many take December 23, 2012 as a very serious date - that marks the end of the Mayan Calendar, a b'ak'tun, as it is called.
And while the end of the world types will be preparing for the worst, Belize's Tourism industry will be preparing for the very best of times - that's because visitor interest in the Mundo Maya world will be at an all-time high.
BTB and NICH have teamed up for a full Calendar of activities for 2012 - starting with a lecture by a visiting professor tonight at the Bliss Center.
Director of the Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Jaime Awe told us what the ancient Maya actually said about 2012:
Dr. Jaime Awe - Director, Institute of Archaelogy
"There's been a lot of 'hoopla' about 2012. In fact, for many people, they see 2012 as the end of this eventful occasion in the Maya calendar, when the calendar ends; so ends the world. But in fact - and there is a lot of publications that are going around, in fact I brought one with me, that's being done by the Institute of American Archaeology. And as you can see, there's the 'hoopla' that also looks at it as a myth, some event that we really can't explain the year in the Ancient Maya calendar because it marks the completion of this great cycle of time called "The 13th B'ak'tun", but what happens is that a lot of folks said, 'We like things very apocalyptic, and we like these kinds of events that makes the headlines'. But what indeed was December 21, 2012 to the Maya? Well, it doesn't seem to have been as negative a deal as we modern western philosophers believe. In fact, what we know is that there is actually only one reference in Ancient Maya records that make reference to 2012. Only on one monument that's found in at a site in Mexico called 'Tortuguero' is the date 2012 mentioned. And what do they mention about it? Well, they say that on that date, this deity, who's not even a very well-known, important god, that he comes down to Earth and gets dressed. What does that mean? Nobody really knows, but does it mean that it's going to be apocalyptic, that the world will come to an end? We don't believe so. Why? Well because there are also at least one, if not more, monument that talk about dates even beyond 2012. There's an inscription on a monument at Palenque that says that something is also going to happen at the end of the 20th B'ak'tun, in about something like 5072 A.D. So obviously, to the Maya, they knew that the world wasn't going to come to an end."
The Belize 2012 Mayan calendar was launched at 6:00 at the Bliss Center and right now - starting at 7:30 a lecture will be given by expert professor Dr. Mark Van Stone on what the ancient Mayan actually said about 2012.
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