Chapter Four: The Village of Metzabok - Continued

Cassarina rode in the front seat, talking a sterile clinical tone of voice, seeming to pay little attention to the horrific deforestation. Our guide, Montero was seated next to me mindlessly looking out the window. Cassarina chose this time to inform me of the Lacandones present health status.

“Most of them suffer from gastrointestinal illnesses, because of ineffective hygiene campaigns. Few of the settlements have latrines. Decades of tribal inter-breeding have resulted in birth-defeats, congenital deformities and infant mortality. But the inappropriate application of DDT and agro-chemical fumigations is causing them more health problems with toxic chemical run off into the regional streams and rivers.

“The destruction of this species rich evergreen rainforest is spreading more infectious diseases as the biodiversified ecosystem is being severely thrown out of balance,” Cassarina said.

She turned around in her seat, directly facing me. I realized she was fully aware of the deforestation outside our car window. The woman had punctuated the incident of deforestation with the deleterious effects upon the human and animal populations.

By mid afternoon our driver brought us to the end of a rutted road in the thick rainforest. He quickly removed our gear, jumped back in the Land Rover and sped off in a cloud of dust. Montero said it was necessary to move quickly so as not to alert illegal loggers that we were here.

Nervous about illegally cutting down mahogany in the area, they wouldn’t hesitate to shoot anyone coming across their path, especially gringos. Looking around as Cassarina and I gathered our gear, I noticed the vibrant morning sun was clouded over by large billowy white clouds that filled the western skies, building up for the usual afternoon rain shower. Cassarina and I followed Montero off into the jungle along a barely visible trail.

Raindrops started to pelt down on me as I set foot into the warm humid climate of the tropical rainforest that once formed a continuous corridor in the states of the Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Veracruz and Pueblo. More than half of the rainforest had been destroyed by oil exploration and clear-cut lumbering and cattle-ranching operations by 1950.

The largest remaining segment of tropical forest is the Selva Lacandona, delineated by the Lower Rio Usumacinta and eastern Tabasco’s savannas and wetlands. This region to some extent continues south into Guatemala and is delineated to the west by predominate highlands and narrow intermountain valleys of Chiapas.

Continued...