The peace agreement in 1996 was supposed to end the atrocities. And things began looking good. "A lot of changes were made. For example, every Guatemalan with a high school education must by law now teach three people how to read and write. We need this in Guatemala. The literacy rate used to be under thirty percent. It's now over sixty. But when Alfonso Portillo was elected president in 1999, things began to go downhill again."

Army and police officers in Guatemala have begun a new campaign of abuse to cover the tracks of their past. Although from the left-wing that supported the demands of the Indian insurgents, Portillo has been unwilling to take steps against the new bloodshed. But all Guatemala's killings and bombings seem silly for a country of farmers. Who needs an anti-communist Gestapo when it's all mostly a matter of cutting sugar-cane and sifting coffeebeans?

"So what does it take for your family to be safe?" I asked.

"The people at Tikal watch out for me. This is because I coached their soccer team to win nine years in a row. They have no choice, I am their hero."

"So, how exactly did you get across to Belize?" I asked, "it's impossible to get through the jungle."

"It's the old highways of Central America. I swam the rivers."

Guatemala's vicious history complements its ancient history - the history of Mayan civilization is a bloody one; city-states endlessly battling each other. Alongside all this battling, one year, a drought hit Central America. Drought and battle could be harnessed by other civilizations, but the Maya had also overfarmed their crops; creating one of the first environmental disasters; spoiling their soil. The multiple tolls destroyed the civilization quickly; squashing priesthoods and dispersing the Mayans into the jungle.

At the peak of the sloping grades stand five temples. From the tops of these buildings, you can see the lowlands of Guatemala; now just jungle. Once those lowlands were the streets of the real Mayan civilization.

One of the triplets kept tugging at my shirt. "A fake," he said. "Bullshit," of a priesthood carving of a King. I asked him why he thought that all of Tikal was a scam. "Come on," he said, "wake up."

Maps and Journals Central America Map Peten, Guatemala Map Belize Moleskine Journal

Isthmus The Kuna Islands Exploring the Kuna Indians island existence and their Caribbean settlement of Panama. The Kuna Coast Continuing from the Kuna Islands, follow us as we dish up the modern history of the Kuna people. Monkey River Town Follow us on a journey up the Monkey River Old Highways of Peten From Belize into the jungles of Northern Guatemala, we travel with redheaded triplets who insist our theories about the Mayan past are all wrong. From San Jose to Ocotal By car to the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. The Howling Coast From the isolated Pacific Coast of Nicaragua to its bustling center, we find a country ready for something it doesn't quite understand, and we find monkeys. Granada Libre Nicaragua from its tourism mecca, and the choices it faces as it enters a brave new world. Jungle in the Sky A walk in the Nicaraguan volcanic cloud forest of Mombacho with an odd cast of characters and a quick look at the past 65 million years.

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