"You've probably heard of the Aztec and the Inca, but we've only just begun to unravel the mystery of another great culture - the Maya." "Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, Belize and Guatemala were once the centre of a culture which stretches back 4000 years." "The Maya were one of the western hemisphere's greatest but least known civilizations." "Today some 6 million Mayan Indians still populate their ancestral lands." "Hundreds of their ruined cities, many still unexcavated, lie scattered throughout the jungles of Central and Meso America." "I am visiting just 4 of them, traveling from Mérida via the Mayan cities of Chichén Itzá and Tulum, south along Belize's Caribbean coast and up to the vast" " Mayan ruins of Caracol and Tikal." "From there I fly south to explore" " Guatemala's southern highlands." "Mérida, the state capital of the Yucatán, is a relaxed, charming city of narrow streets, colonial buildings and shady parks." "Most Yucatan people are mestizos, Mexicans of mixed Spanish and Indian descent who take great pride in their Mayan roots." "Mérida is full of street traders and markets and is one of the best places in the world to buy what every traveler needs in the tropics - a hammock." "How long does it take to make the hammock?" "10 days." "To make one hammock." "All by hand." " Yeah, you like this one?" " Yeah, I like this one very much." " Good decision." " Yes?" "I am a smart shopper." " You have the right hammock." " OK, good." "3 hours east of Mérida are the largest and best restored Mayan ruin in the Yucatán" " Chichén Itzá." "The city of Chichén Itzá dominated the Yucatán Peninsular until the 13th century." "At a time when Europe languished in the Dark Ages the Maya cleared dense jungles to construct canals, roads and giant temples." "And all without the use of metal tools, the wheel or beasts of burden." "Unlike the Aztec and the Inca the Maya never had a unified empire." "Their lands were a collection of independent and often warring city states." "Ritual blood-letting and human sacrifice formed a fundamental part of the culture even when it came to playing ball." " The game ended in a human sacrifice." "The 2 leaders were supposed to try to make the point by putting the ball through the hoop." "This is the winner, holding the head of the one that lost his head, the one who didn't score, he's offering to the sun god." "On this side you can notice the right hand is holding the knife, the blade he used to cut the head of the loser." "The name Chichén Itzá means 'Mouth of the well of the Itzaes'" "and it was into this well that offerings to the gods were thrown." "In 1923 archeologists dredged up priceless artifacts and the skeletons of the men, women and children sacrificed here." "If I clap my hand you are gonna hear 7 times." "Now listen." "But it's the architecture which impresses most." "The Maya were masters of astronomy and mathematics." "They invented the zero centuries before the Old World and lived by a calendar which is even more accurate than our own today." "Their temples were aligned so precisely that windows and doors were used as celestial observatories." "91 steps on either side which gives the total of 364 days - or steps." "The top platform represents the 365th day of the year." "This then is the Mayan calendar formed in stone." "90, 91..." "Spanish missionaries destroyed almost all Mayan manuscripts, which may have offered clues as to why this and other great Mayan cities were abandoned." "Gracias Senorita." "Buses in the Yucatan don't follow strict timetables - you just get onto a main road, wait for a few minutes or hours, flag down the first bus going your way and jump on." "Another ancient Mayan site is Tulum, 4 hours east on Mexico's Caribbean coast." "The beach at Tulum has been a popular hangout for travelers for years." "A cabaña can be rented on the beach for around $10 a night." " Buenos dias." " Buenos dias." "Do you have a Cabina, for one night?" " Si, mira, tenemos La Acapulco." " Yes, Acapulco." "Ah!" "Esta La paradisio." " Si el paradíso de Mexico." " Paradisio de Mexico." "People like to sleep on the beach." "It's not the Hilton I will tell you that." " Ah God, the sand." " Arena." " Arena." " Muy bonita." "On the beach I got a few travelers' tips." " I really like zinc oxide all over my body." " Here's a good one..." " Watch it!" " I love to sleep in a hammock." "I tried it now and I get used to it." "It's beautiful, you have to do it." "It's always hot in the Yucatán so there is no best time to come, though it does tend to rain more between May and October." "The best part of this whole room is the carpet." "My little sandy carpet." "And here is my Jesus alter that I bought in Mérida." "And my mosquito coil and my mosquito jungle repellent." "A little travelers tip:" "Create a little mosquito death poison barrier." "Tulum means 'City of Dawn' in Mayan, and the ruins face due east across the Caribbean." "It's a fortress city built between the 11th and 15th centuries when the Mayan civilization was already in decline." "Tulum was one of the few cities still occupied when the Spanish arrived." "And the dense forests to the west kept the 500 or so people who lived here safe for another century." "Today, Tulum cannot escape daily invasion." "So when that happens it's, best to make a quick exit and cool down." "Tulum was abandoned in the 17th century, and as with most Mayan cities, no-one knows exactly why." "Outside the ruins some Totonaca Indians were performing for tourists." "This is in fact part of a traditional harvest ceremony held every year in areas of Mexico and Guatemala." "The 4 fliers, or 'voladores' represent air, water, fire and earth." "They turn 13 times each on the way down to the ground, to symbolize the 52 weeks in the year." "I was heading 4 hours south to Mexico's border with Belize." "Another 4 hours gets you to Belize City, the country's principal town." " Where are you going?" " To Belize." "Belize is an English-speaking country roughly the size of Massachusetts." "After pirates settled the coast in the 17th century Belize became part of the British Empire." "The last British soldiers only left in 1994." "Belize City is a port town and roughly a third of the country's population of 200,000, live here." "For such a tiny country Belize is home to a diverse mix of people and cultures." "60% of the population are Creole - descendants of African slaves and British pirates. 10% are pure blooded Maya." "A third are mestizos, and there are even several thousand Swiss German Mennonites." "A separatist religious sect." "It's a hot, dirty, dilapidated but lively city, a strange mixture of Caribbean ease and African rhythm." "Flying is the easiest way to get to the more remote parts of the south as the roads are in such poor condition." "A 30 minute flight takes me 60 miles south to the beach village of Placencia which is a good base from which to explore the nearby reef." " How are you ma'am?" " Very well, thanks." " All right!" " Do you think that I could get a cold beer?" "Belikan?" "That sounds good." " Belize's best." " No problem, ma'am." "Much of the south is populated by the Garifuna people and I was heading to one of their town festivals." "Garifuna are part African and part Caribbean Indian." "They look more African than" " Indian, but their language is more Indian than African." "Their food is also distinctive." "Green bananas and coconut milk are staples of Garifuna cooking and are found in almost everything including conch soup." "When you enjoy the conch soup it can help you a lot, especially with your spinal chord, back, you know." "So that it will help you to generate..." " Generate?" " To multiply..." "Exactly, the kids, you can, exactly." " You know, to get..." " Go on say it, you can say it!" "Pregnant!" "Garifuna history began with a shipwreck 300 years ago when 2 slave ships foundered in the Caribbean's Windward islands." "They intermarried with the original inhabitants, the Indian Caribs and after repeated insurrections were deported by the British." "The Garifunas eventually settled the Belizean coast and have been here ever since." "Belize is more expensive than other countries in Central America but in laid back, relatively undiscovered Placencia you can stay in a small guest house for about $15 a night." "Garifuna music is based on African rhythms and is an important part of social and religious celebrations." "Garifunas have often been discriminated." "In fact for 200 years they needed permits just to visit Belize City for more than 48 hours." "The longest reef in the western hemisphere is only 45 minutes by boat from Placencia." "You can also explore the hundreds of little islands, called Cayes, which are scattered along Belize's shallow coast." "Kurt, my diving instructor chose one of the nearest, for my first scuba lesson." " It's clear now." " Yeah." "And from there you can taste the air, we're gonna breath." "If you avoid tourist resorts it can cost as little as $40 a day to dive this 150 mile long barrier reef." "Underwater visibility is over 200 feet in places." "I was diving on a patch of coral reef near Laughing Bird Caye, it's not as spectacular as the barrier reef with its coral walls thousands of feet deep, but it is safer for a first timer like me." "But no matter where you dive, you'll always see something." "All along this coast are dozens of rivers which used to be the only passage inland." "These dense forests and mangroves provide much needed protection for hundreds of birds and animals." " Why is this called the Monkey River?" " Because you find a lot of monkeys." "We call them monkeys, but they're actually howler monkeys." " Howler monkeys." " Yeah." "The howler monkey was once sacred to the Maya as a god of writing." "Now, like so many others, it's a threatened species." "From the coast I traveled up into Belize's western highlands to the immense" " Mayan site of Caracol, near the border with Guatemala." "Caracol is one of Belize's most inaccessible ruins." "It's 3 hours by four wheel drive from the nearest main road up through pine and rainforest." "The site is still being excavated and Joanne, a student archeologist showed me around." " What's been your most exciting find?" "Well, I've gotten 2 burials so far." "And in fact I'll take you to go see one right now." " You mean you, you've uncovered?" " Yeah, exactly." " Bodies?" "Exactly." "Here we have the largest amount of tombs and burials than any other Maya site in the Meso-American area, so..." "It's very interesting." "In fact, I've got one here that I would like to show you." "But you might want to go around that side, and squat down for a better view." " Oh, my God, look at that." " Yeah." " When did you find this?" "Actually yesterday we removed this very large slate slab and the first thing that you saw was the top of the person's skull." "And right next to it was a 7 cm obsidian blade." "And what you have here is a flexed burial and a very small crypt." "Here are all the leg bones." "The leg bones are all up like this." "And there is actually a foot right there." " And the eyes are facing directly north." " Can you tell if that's a man or a woman?" "Not right now, we've just got the very top level of the pelvic bones." "Once we're able to dig deeper we will be able to see the notch which signifies whether or not it was a male or female." " The Maya deliberately sited Caracol deep in the jungle and 12 miles from fresh water so that the enemy could not easily locate them." "Their man-made reservoir is still used over a 1000 years  later by archeologists." "What we have here is a tomb." "There was one female placed in here." "The Maya buried their dead under their living room floors, so right above, right on top, would be her family living there." "Also they would cut off fingers as an offering to the dead and they would be placed around as well." "In the 7th century almost as many people lived in the city of Caracol as now live in the entire country of Belize." "The chief archeologist here is Diane Chase." " Caracol is unusual because it's so large and actually we don't even know what the boundaries of the city, of Caracol are we haven't found a place yet where there isn't population." "The Maya recorded the great events of their history in complicated hieroglyphics carved into huge stones called stelae, many of which have still not been deciphered." "This stela tells of war." " Another thing about Caracol is that it's extremely warlike from very early in its history." "We have evidence of pottery just left on the floors, an unburied child, also a lot of burning and weapons." "We have people living here at least until 1100 AD but when they stop living here they disappear very quickly, so we think that warfare had a lot to do with that." "These hills are also home to the Mennonites, a strict Protestant sect who fled Europe 200 years ago to escape persecution, among themselves they still speak 18th century German." "They do not believe in contraception and prefer to intermarry." "In a community of 1400 I found just 29 last names." "Clearly this was not a group looking to assimilate with the outside world." "Mennonites believe that anything worldly, anything that is not strictly functional, is sinful." "Some sects won't speak to strangers but this Mennonite had recently rebelled." "The colony is about 4 miles from here about." " The Mennonite colony?" " Yeah." "They has about 35 families and drive all horses." " So there's a group of" " Mennonites who still believe that they can't do anything worldly." "Before I just could driving horses, but now I could driving trucks and tractors..." " I could do everything that is free for me." " Now, you can..." "Yeah, but before, everything was a sin." "The Mopan River separates the conservative Mennonites in Barton Creek from the progressives." "All Mennonites are exempt from military service, they don't vote or take any public office, they use their own schools and uphold morals from a byegone age." "Ben Reimer is one of the leaders of the progressive community at Spanish Lookout." "There are about 70 different types of Mennonites." "We have very liberal Mennonites, they are more or less like any kind of worldly people, we would call." "Then we have pretty conservatives too." "And for these" " Barton Creek people we are called very liberal people." "And we would consider ourselves still conservative." "Some don't want to have no kind of automobiles, it has to be strictly horse and buggy." "They will not have anything that has a motor in it on rubber tires, like tractors have to be on steel." "Cars are not allowed." "We are not allowed to smoke." "Not allowed to drink, go to parties or dances." "And be honest people, when you say yes, it means yes." "And when you say no, it is no." "Back on the Mayan route and I was heading into Guatemala." "From the border I'll travel 5 hours along unpaved roads to the Mayan ruins of" " Tikal in Guatemala's Petan jungle." "There's no bank on this border, but there's no problem buying the Guatemalan currency - the Quetzal." " Five point five, for you." " No, no, five, five point six." " OK, five point six." " Five point seven?" " No, no!" " Come on, come on, I will give you." " Five six five?" " How much?" " Smart man!" "500, 300?" " I will change 50." "50..." " No 50..." " That's what we say in my country..." " OK, I got it." "Thank you very much." " All right, thank you, Cheho is my name." "The last people you want to go to are the police and watch out for all the guns." "It ain't no Disneyland." "Guatemala only recognized its border with Belize in 1991, until then the official  line was that Belize was just another Guatemalan province." "It's impossible not to fall in love with Guatemala." "People are really friendly." "Saying hello all the time, and just like curious about who you are and..." "Yeah, it's very nice." "Over half the population of Guatemala are pure-blooded Mayan Indians and almost everyone has some Mayan ancestry." "Hidden in these vast jungles lie hundreds of great Mayan cities and every day archeologists unearth extraordinary structures and priceless artifacts." "But of the discoveries so far, the giant among Mayan cities is Tikal, where over 3000 structures have been found in an area of 50 square miles." "The Maya settled here around 400BC." "By the time of Christ the central plaza was taking shape and by 250AD it was an important ceremonial centre." "Tikal struggled under the yoke of Caracol for 150 years until 700AD and 200 years  later this beautiful city had been, yes you've guessed it, abandoned." "Why?" "I've heard from my dad, who studies, that there were some rivers found in the area that were dried up, and it was a gradual seasonal change they ran out of water." "They were so into sacrifices that, like, all the beautiful people got sacrificed." "All the strongest people got sacrificed." "they just like marooned their gene pool." "They became a weak species." "I think the Mayans eventually killed themselves off in wars that they had between themselves." "The elite which lived here seemed to have inbred a lot." "So that went against them, and sort of like, they began their downfall really." "I think that it was like the dinosaurs." "From Santa Elena near Tikal it's a 45 minute, $40 flight south to the country's capital, Guatemala City." "Home to a quarter of the country's 9 million people, Guatemala City is the largest urban sprawl in Central America." "Migrant workers looking for jobs crowd into the city every day adding to the poverty which sits uncomfortably alongside glaring displays of wealth." "In the bus station I met a couple of guys who'd been on the road for over 2 years." "We've been in Guatemala City for 20 minutes." "We're trying to get out as fast as possible." "It's so polluted here, my throat is starting to hurt already." "Too many people who stare at you, definitely." " Staring at you?" " Yeah, definitely." "It seems to me to be if not aggressive, then slightly unfriendly." "Are people different in Guatemala City than in the other places in Guatemala?" "It seems they move way too fast here for their own good, I think." "In the backpackers hotel I met a German who'd got stuck here, and not just for the night." "You've been in Guatemala City for a month." "I have been in Guatemala City for a month, I try to sell the bike." " You try to sell it?" " I try to, I sell it, otherwise no." "What do you do in Guatemala City for a month?" " Trying to sell the bike." " Where did you get it?" "In Memphis, Tennessee, in the States." "About 8 months ago." " Is that how long you have been traveling?" " Yeah, about." "Guatemala's highlands 2 hours west are reckoned to be the most beautiful part of the country." "I was traveling via Tecpan to Lake Atitlan and would return to Antigua for the famous Easter celebrations." "These people are descendants of the Maya." "They are mostly peasant farmers whose first language is Quechua, a Mayan dialect." "Spanish is a distant second." "After centuries of exploitation the Indian or indigenous peoples, as they prefer to be called, are rather reserved and distrustful of strangers." "Every town and village in Guatemala comes alive once or twice a week with a market, it's here in the highlands that the traditional values and way of life of the indigenous people are the strongest." "Do you have arroz con leche - rice milk?" "Drinking anything which is not out of a bottle in these parts is a risky business, but I took a chance with the rice milk." "Esta bien, esta bien." "That's bueno." "Freshly squeezed orange juice for a couple of cents and all kinds of fruits." "If you're traveling on a tight budget, this is the place to shop." "The brocade in each garment indicates which village the wearer comes from." "Women have kept to traditional costume but men are increasingly discarding it often because city people make fun of their hand-woven outfits." "Es bonita." "The whole piece is $50." "I think it's a very reasonable price." "It's all made by hand." "It's a real find this place" " Tecpan." "It's not touristy like a lot of the other markets in Guatemala." "I mean I haven't seen those trendy Guatemalan shorts anywhere, but you can get those at the airport." "The main towns in the highlands are connected by the Pan-American" " Highway - which in these parts is often just a windy B road." "Travel is extremely inexpensive and is easiest on market days or in the mornings." "An hour west is Lake Atitlán, rated one of the most beautiful lakes in the world." "The village of Panajachel on the shores of Lake Atitlán has attracted so many travelers over the years, it's been nicknamed Gringotenango." "The whole town doesn't seem to offer much more than endless open air shops full of colorful clothes and crafts." "That night I tried something a little different, a traveling circus from El Salvador." "Surrounding the lake are dozens of tiny Indian villages all named after one of the apostles, and each with their own dialect and costume." "I took a 20 minute boat trip to San Pedro de Laguna." "An American photo journalist, Richard Flamer, was waiting to introduce me to- local artist, Mariano González, from the Tzutuhil Mayan group." " Hi, Richard." " How are you?" "Good." "And this is Mariano?" " Mariano Gonzales." " Nice to meet you." "Look forward to seeing your art." "I first met Mariano on my travels, when I was looking for art." "At an exhibition in Antigua I first saw some of his paintings." "And I just fell in love with them, partly because of the content." "Especially because he paints scenes from the past, from 75 years, 80 years ago." "In this case for example, these costumes are all his people, the Tzutuhile people." "The Tzutuhile culture is 2000 years old but it's dying fast." "Probably 90, 95% of this culture has been lost." "Why is it that there are so few Tzutuhiles now?" "Because when Tzutuhiles study they leave their home, they go to work in" " Guatemala City." "So when people start speaking Spanish they also start leaving for the capital to look for work." "But those who don't speak Spanish always stay on their land." "Do you ever find Latin people working in the fields?" "No, Latin's don't work the land, just the Indians, the indigenous people." "The Tzutuhiles, the Cakchiqueles, the Mams, the Quiches." "They cut coffee, cotton, banana, sugar." "Latins don't get involved in that type of work." "Although the Indigenous people are in the majority here, they are also by far the poorest group, owning less than 10% of the arable land." "Contact with the outside world is increasing, but while their poverty remains untouched it's their traditions which are threatened." "In the Quiché village of Nahualá 2 hours from Atitlán I met two 18 year old" " Mormons part of a group several hundred strong looking for converts." "We're here to share with people what we believe..." "Yeah, pretty much that." " To share the message of our church." " You can tell someone how you believe and how you feel and you can ask them to pray about it, right?" " How long are you going to be here?" " I'll be here for 2 years." "2 years." "It's good though, they're real humble people." "One thing that hasn't changed much in these villages are the crafts." "The art and practice of weaving is an ancient Mayan tradition." "Manuela is a skilled weaver using a back strap loom a method 4,000 years old and common to many indigenous peoples all over the world." "In Guatemala only the women use this method, while the men use the larger  loom brought over by the Spanish." "The styles include a combination of their own ideas, copies of motifs on Mayan pottery, and patterns which have been handed down through the ages." "Manuela explained in Quiché that she works every day and that a weaving like this takes about 2 weeks to finish." "Antigua is the former capital of Guatemala and was founded in 1543." "It's a good place to meet travelers." "All sorts of travelers." "My name is Fred Heywood, his name's Diablo, the horse's name is Fantasma." "Oh, and my wife, she's named Paula." "We left Birmingham in the 60's, we dropped out and went on the hippie overland trail to India, and we've stayed dropped out ever since." "And after 17 years after India we went back to England, couldn't have it, the culture shock was too great." "You know we left in the 60's and a Socialist Government, and now we come back to Yuppie land and Thatcherism, the currency had changed and it was like just a time warp." "And in the mean time a friend said:" "'Why don't you try Portugal?" "' We went..." "Have you ever been to Portugal?" "Don't bother." "Cork trees, olive trees and white trash European tourists." "That's Portugal." "So then we came here." "And somebody said where's your money you know, take it out of Switzerland and put it into the stock market." " Yeah, we did 6 days before it crashed." " In '87." " So we're here, we can't go back." " So we decided we better stay here," "we hadn't got the money to go on, doing any more traveling." "So we stayed here and that is where we've been ever since." "Fred and Paula now run horse excursions for tourists." "Adios." "Antigua has been repeatedly damaged by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, fires and even floods." "Yet it remains one of the most beautiful colonial cities in the Americas." "Easter is celebrated passionately in every town and village in Guatemala, but nowhere more splendidly than in Antigua." "The streets are covered in dozens of alfombras or carpets made from colored sawdust and flower petals." "These beautiful but fragile works can take several people up to 12 hours to make." "The next morning they will be destroyed as the procession shuffles through them." "The whole city dresses up as biblical characters to accompany the daily religious processions in remembrance of the crucifixion." "Throughout the Mayan lands Catholicism has fused with traditional beliefs." "The Maya easily embrace the symbol of Christ spilling his blood as sacrifice and blood letting were practiced by their own Priests." "For over 3 days the entire town devotes itself to presenting this enormous passion play." "Guatemala is a country of volcanoes, and just an hour south of Antigua is one of the most active" " Pacaya." " It takes about an hour and a half to climb to the plateau." "And then another 45 minutes to climb the comb and on top of that it's active." "How dangerous is that to climb up an erupting volcano?" "Well, you don't want to get too close to the cone while it is erupting, because it explodes." " And I heard about these toxic gases?" "Every active volcano has very toxic gases, however the wind is blowing from the north today, so the gases are going to be going away from where we are climbing." "You could see the big, red rocks coming out of the volcano and all over..." "And over there you can see we're above the clouds..." "This is truly my personal adventure!"