Grinding poverty was obvious and we, the conservationists, were moved to consider the connections between the natural landscape and the future of these people who now had faces and names. Our conversation was peppered with ideas about how we might do something to help, such as sending supplies to schools, or promoting ecotourism to Guatemala among our friends and acquaintances.

One of the small satisfactions of a NAA International Workshop trip is the opportunity to decide as a group how to invest the dollars that we each contribute as part of the trip cost—just under a thousand dollars total in this case. At the end of the ten days we discussed the possibilities and it was our unanimous decision to support an education program to promote responsible fishing in the Bocas del Polochic Wildlife Refuge. To a person we wanted to do more.

We were also challenged to think about the lifestyle choices we make in our own lives as we saw what remains of ancient great civilizations. Tikal lived up to its enormous reputation with treats that were cultural (the Great Jaguar Temple), natural (ocellated turkeys), and hilarious (a huge green grasshopper that decided  

to hitch a ride on Rook’s hat.) But it was at the Yux’ha Archeological site, which is currently being excavated and is not full of tourists yet, that we saw a vast city covered over by vegetation—a powerful vision of impermanence. We climbed to the top of Temple #216, where we joined a keel-billed toucan and a group of howler monkeys in blissfully watching the sunset. At such moments of close connection with the rest of the universe, blinding insights can sometimes flood one’s being and at that moment the fragility of our own civilization was palpable to me.

Later that week at the Community Cultural Center at the San Pedro Volcano, we learned that in the Mayan calendar December 22, 2012 marks the end of the current era and that those who know the Mayan ways will be able to adapt to the new times that follow. With the growing understanding of the unsustainable nature of our fossil fuel-based life style, it is not such a stretch to think that five years from now this current era will indeed end. I see this NOT as

                                                                                          a doomsday prediction, but offer it in sincere hope that this Mayan prediction looks ahead to an era when we will as a culture act differently in relationship to the natural world. ▪

Laurel Ross is Urban Conservation Director for the Chicago Field Museum’s department of Environmental and Conservation Programs. She has been an NAA member for over fifteen years and is a strong supporter of the International Program.

¹ed. note: After several days with the NAA group, our guide Esteban, who has led numerous tours over many years, noted that we were “not in any way a traditional tour group.” We’re pretty sure that was a compliment.