Ancient Mayan sites will be buzzing with activity on Friday, hosting ritual reenactments, conferences and sound-and-light shows -- often against the backdrop of protests by indigenous groups who complain their culture is being hijacked.
But elsewhere around the globe there will be no shortage of shelters or shrines to host the fearful -- or simply curious -- crowds through the night.
Apocalyptic-minded folk in Brazil can head to the village of Alto Paraiso, a place pulsating with "mystical energy", as local lore would have it, that has been readying for the end for years.
An anti-Armageddon ceremony will take place on the Island of the Sun, in the middle of Bolivia's Lake Titicaca, the highest in the world, where legend has it the founders of the Inca empire were born.
