The Latin American civilizations were the only advanced ones to be completely independent of the rest of the world. The Mongols who inhabited the Americas came across the Bering Straight as primitive people - they never had contact with Mesopotamia or Cairo, or Greece or Rome or China or Japan. All the African, European and Asian civilizations were linked by Hundred-mile trade routes. Way before Marco Polo, in the ancient world, wisdom and invention traveled slowly, but it did travel.

The early Americans had none of these connections, they were alone in a world completely different from where they came.

It has been a popular subject to claim that in fact all of the ancient civilizations were in contact with each other - and that the Egyptians regularly crossed the Atlantic to trade with the Incas. After all, we found reed boats in Lake Titicaca, isn't that evidence enough? We have been told that the Peruvians settled Polynesia, even though the blood-lines of the Pacific Islanders are clearly Asian. We have been told that Jesus visited Tibet and that Mohammed spoke with the Indians, and that the Libyans visited Oklahoma. That before steamships and planes, there were vast trade routes throughout the world.

Of course, all of this is false - the wild, but unscientific claims of the world's Thor Heyerdahls. The Mesoamerican civilizations were the only ones to become civilized independent of the rest of the world. This is also the one reason why the American civilizations are the most bizarre. No, not Egypt, not Greece, not Mesopotamia, or ancient China. The Maya. In a world of toucans and jaguars, bromeliads, and, oh the heat, between the Caribbean and the Pacific, those Asian migrants built a calendar, a society, complex astronomy and mathematics without Africa, Europe or Asia.

But the fascination of Maya has little to do with old stones. A temple is a signature more of dictatorial priests than the achievements of a civilization's clockwork. It was in the old highways; the trade routes of the Americas, that make Mesoamerica alive.

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

Isthmus Coconut Train to Cuero y Salado Northern Honduras as a muse for travel. Letters from the Canopy Atop the Soberanía jungle and near the banks of the Panama canal, I write a series of letters to a mysterious pastor. The Kuna Islands Exploring the Kuna Indians island existence and their Caribbean settlement of Panama. 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. The Howling Coast From the isolated Pacific Coast of Nicaragua to its bustling center. 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.