The Future of Petén

BISHOP, Calif. — I remember my first contact with Mayan culture and history. In 2001, I explored the Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán watching as the Mayan Riviera exploded unlike anything this peninsula had seen in 30+ years. I walked around with my camera making pictures and thinking. So this is the future of ecotourism? Who is being helped? Who are we ignoring and forgetting?

While touring the Mayan ruins of Uxmal, Chitchén Itzá, Tulum and Cobá I kept meeting travelers who whispered of the great Mayan communities in Guatemala, but travel that far south was not in my tea leaves at that time.

So today, I write this from a friend’s kitchen table in Bishop, Calif. I’m in the desiccate rain shadow of the Sierra Mountains. The air is dry, the heat is dry, the plants thirst for water as do I. In just a few short weeks I’ll be drenched from head to toe. Every article of clothing will be soaking wet. I can’t wait but until then there is so much to do.