The Future of Petén

It looks like the Guatemalan forest rangers from CONAP, the Council of Protected Areas, think they can make a dent in the eviction of ranchers who have staked illegal claims to the land in the Maya forest — if they get a lot more funding from the federal government. Claudia Santizo, CONAP’s secretary, said the [...]

Please take a look at our new Wikipedia entry on “Cuatro Balam” and feel free to edit and add more accurate content. One of the items we’re in discussion about is the origins of Cuatro Balam. Many people we talked with seemed to suggest that Cuatro Balam was not just an initative, but a geographic reference too, [...]

A Tale of Two Wildernesses by Michael Stoll Published in the Earth Island Journal, a publication of the Earth Island Institute To read the article as it appeared in the magazine, click here. I knew things were bad when Paulino dipped his empty plastic water bottle into a shallow, muddy swamp puddle. After attempting to [...]

FLORES, Guatemala — A bottle of clear water was set before me, drops of condensation from the recent refrigeration clinging to its sides. I just had to twist off the cap and drink. And I did, and it was good and tasted just like water should taste, like nothing but refreshing just the same. Of [...]

Yesterday we completed our two-day return hike from El Mirador to Carmelita. The bajos again felt muddy and endless, but with the help of an early start and a mule ride, we made it out. On our own, without the archaeologists for the first time in many days, our group of four felt small. On [...]

The laboratory in the jungle is a small oasis of electricity and Wi-Fi in Peten’s sea of rainforest darkness broken only by the drone of cicadas that is present all day. Every night, David Barreda and I move in with a bag of battery chargers, power strips, two laptops and a multitude of gadgets that [...]

Today head archaeologist Richard Hansen continued our tour of monumental architecture, while discussing his plans for the development of ecotourism at El Mirador. Hansen is convinced that the only way to stop deforestation is to create a legally protected 810,000-acre no-cut area around the archaeological sites here, bounded by the natural borders of the Mirador [...]

My trip to Guatemala began with an uncomfortable bus ride from San Ignacio Cayo, Belize through Melchor to Santa Elena where I tried rather unsuccessfully to communicate with the people around me in terribly broken spanish. Nonetheless, as I waited for my brain to wake up enough to remember how to conjugate the imperative I [...]

It’s the end of our first full day in the ancient Mayan city of El Mirador. We slogged fifty or so miles on foot to get here, over two days. The hike in took us through the muddy lowland bajos or swamp areas, then up on an ancient Mayan causeway until we reached El Mirador. [...]