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 [...]

Richard Hansen, Director of the Mirador Basin Project and head archaeologist at El Mirador archaeological site was named Environmentalist of the Year by Latin Trade magazine.
Latin Trade today announced the winners of the Latin Trade Bravo Business Awards intended to “honor government and business leaders for their contributions to progress in Latin America.” The [...]

Our Future of Petén multimedia team has been searching the Flores, Guatemala area for lumber workers to tell us their story. Today we found a few and broke that Flores lassitude fade into the distance.

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 [...]

The jungle of Mirador spit us out on Sunday. One hundred miles swelling up our feet, we stumbled into Carmelita and drank ourselves a Famosa and inhaled some PBJ sandwiches while watching las mulas swat away flies from their behinds. Small curious childen watched us as we sprawled on plastic lawn chairs y Doña Pati [...]

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 [...]

Recap of trek to Mirador through photos.

The more than 40-mile trek from Mirador to Tintal, Guatemala, did at times involve hopping on the mule during rain torrents.

We came to northern Guatemala, and slogged through the mud for two days straight, to find out whether there was anything to the claims that archaeology could help save a Rhode Island-size chunk of roadless tropical forest.

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 [...]