The Future of Petén

On July 16, when Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom presented the Cuatro Balam plan for increased tourism and environmental protection within the Maya Biosphere Reserve, he showed the following video:

The video invokes the wisdom of the ancient Maya, their superior knowledge of the heavens and the natural world. It goes on to paint a picture of [...]

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 [...]

July 13, 2008
FLORES, Guatemala — From our plush hotel balcony in Flores, Don Oscar’s house sits by my pinky when I stretch my arm out. A week ago we landed there straight from the bus ride from Guatemala City and scrambled to keep things organized and to have a sense of where we were [...]

July 12, 2008
TINTAL, Guatemala — Tintal is quiet and empty without the anthropologists. In the distance the howling monkeys scrape their calls through the night. We sit under a xate rooftop and listen to it rain again and again while we drink hot sweetened milk - our eyes glazed over from fatigue. We’ve untied our [...]

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 [...]

Lost in the jungle at night with no water, but lots of mud and mosquitos.
Paco went missing. On the first of two days of walking, on Monday, I was enjoying a series of mini botany and archaeology lectures from Paulino, the archaeologist we’d nicknamed “The Philosopher.” He was pointing out the differences between the ceiba [...]

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. [...]