I'm a city boy, and I’m in the middle of the Laconja (pronounced La-cone-HAH) jungle.

I saw a crocodile. I looked at an insect said to be 17,000 years old. And I swam in a jungle stream whose water was jaw-dropping crystal-clear. The clearest I have ever seen.

More about that later.

The Laconja rainforest is on the southern edge of Mexico, and home to indigenous people some believe to be the direct descendants of the ancient Mayans. The Lancandones were only “discovered” in 1943…..they lived untouched by modern civilization until then. It is the only rainforest in North America. It has been reduced to just ten percent of its original size because of clear-cutting.

Today there are only about 700-800 Lancandones left. Their facial features closely resemble those of the indigenous people we saw painted on murals in the breathtaking Mayan ruins we visited on this day.

We met Miguel, a Lacandon, in the jungle. His job is to keep the jungle trails open with a machete, and to maintain the tree-trunk bridges the tourists use to cross small streams. He is 47-years-old, and has lived in this area all his life. As did his father…..and his grandfather….and theirs as well. He has been to the city once. Doesn’t like cars, he tells us. Too crowded.

Our stay in the jungle began in a “rustic” cabin at an ecotourist “resort.” There were only two walls, four bunks, a bit of a porch with a couple of tree stumps for chairs around part of a tree trunk for a table. I clambered up to the top bunk, pulled down the mosquito netting, and fell asleep to the strange sounds of the jungle, and a small, rushing river not twenty yards from my bed. The bugs aren’t bad at all, though. I probably could have gotten away without the net. I fell asleep quickly, and got in a solid eight hours.

I didn’t think to save some bottled water, though…..I couldn’t brush my teeth. You can’t really use the tap water anywhere in Mexico.

In the morning, we boarded a riverboat for the hour-long ride along the Usamacinta River to the ancient Mayan city of Yachilan. The river separates Mexico and Guatemala. Mexico on the left, Guatemala on the right. Very cool.

Yaxchilan is one of many city-sites where the Mayans maintained a culture sophisticated in art, architecture, politics, and commerce between 250 and 900 A.D. It would have been at its height around the time of the reign of Bird Jaguar the fourth….752-772 A.D.

The Mayans at one time numbered in the millions in their territory, which incorporated parts of southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. They have often been described as a peaceful, agricultural people….but history has shown them to have been quite warlike, often fighting among themselves.

To think Yachilan is only one medium-sized city…..with its 400 years of ongoing activity, and its 120 or so unearthed buildings……is to stop and think how big and how successful this civilization was. Yachilan is only one of many such sites……we also saw ruins at Bonampak, for example, where there are amazingly well-preserved painted murals created about 1,300 years ago. We’re also going to see the Palenque ruins…..but we’re only scratching the surface, as they say!

How did this magnificent civilization….so advanced for its time….come to an inglorious end by the year 900 A.D.?

Theories abound. There is evidence that clear-cutting took its toll. The Mayans did not treat their jungle particularly well. They cleared much of it for agriculture. There was drought about the time of the collapse, which the clear cutting would obviously have exacerbated. And they fought with each other. As the population increased, they fought over depleting resources.

It leads one to think about modern-day parallels. What will they be unearthing about us 13-hundred years from now?

On our way back in the riverboat…..someone noticed a rather large motionless object on a sandbar not far from Guatemalan shore, maybe 40 yards away. Oh my God, it’s a crocodile! The scramble for cameras was intense. It was just lying there in the sun, as they like to do. A good-sized one, too. We were told they’d never come after people in a boat. They’re afraid of it. Nevertheless, I know I was keeping an eye on it. I’ve seen crocodiles in zoos, but that’s it.

The day before, I had a Jurassic Park-like experience. We pulled up to a roadside tourist stand where pieces of amber jewellery were on display. Chiapas is one of the world’s few amber-producing regions. Amber is not much more than petrified tree sap. I picked up one piece, about the size of my thumb, and there was an insect in the middle of this solid hunk of beautiful amber. The woman who ran the stand said the insect was 17,000 years old. 17,000 years ago, this insect got stuck in this tree sap! I had no way of confirming the information….but she did say the price was 3,000 pesos, or $300 Canadian. I almost bought it.

I have also had the most incredible swimming experiences of my life here. Our guide showed us the way, about ten minutes into the jungle, to a beautifully crystal-clear jungle lagoon. The water was about was nearly chest-high, and you could see down to your feet as if there were no water there at all. And so cool and refreshing. A canopy of jungle overhead protected this Shangri-La from the scorching sun.

This morning, during a three-hour hike through the jungle to the Mayan ruins of Laconja....another magical swimming experience. Here was a medium-sized three-pronged waterfall leading down to an area of smaller waterfalls, and again, amazingly clear ponds with rushing water. You can imagine how inviting that was after a two-hour trek through the jungle. The best neck and back massage I ever had. The jungle swims were the best part of my introduction to life in the jungle. However, the other part of this is that water like this exists in this country, where so many people must contend with the foulest water imaginable. Even the tap water is something we have avoided….not to drink, not even to brush your teeth.

We’re off to Palenque to see more ruins.