ESSENTIALS - Guatemala - page 674

running along the park's boundaries has also become permeable to incursions from Mex-
ican peasants, who have made a once razor-sharp border between the two countries look
more like patchwork. Archaeologists working in these parts enter under the escort of heav-
ily armed guards. Visitors to this park should limit their activities to those centered around
the Scarlet Macaw Biological Research Station, as the current lawless conditions prevent
my recommending more in-depth explorations of this wild frontier.
Sierra del Lacandón National Park is a densely forested, rugged mountain park said
to harbor one of the largest populations of jaguars in all of Central America as well as an
incredible degree of biodiversity. Hidden in the forests are the remains of several May-
an sites, the most important of which is Piedras Negras, deep inside the park along the
Usumacinta River, which marks the western border with Mexico. The park is privately
administered by Fundación Defensores de la Naturaleza. In June 2006, together with
The Nature Conservancy, it completed the purchase of 31,000 hectares (77,000 acres) of
privatelyownedlandinthecorezoneofSierradelLacandón.Thereareanumberofranger
stations inside the park, the most prominent of which is at Piedras Negras.
A large park in the northern section of the Maya Biosphere Reserve near the Mexican
border, Mirador-Dos Lagunas-Río Azul National Park protectsvastexpansesoftropical
forestsandtheremainsofseveralMayancities.Amongthemostimpressiveruinsarethose
at El Mirador, including El Tigre temple, which is 18 stories high with a base the size of
three football fields. Other sites inside the park include Río Azul and Nakbé, visible from
the top of El Mirador's massive temples. Access to the park is by foot, a full day's walk
from the village of Carmelita, or helicopter.
Laguna Lachuá National Park consists of a circular lagoon in the Ixcán jungle west
of Cobán surrounded by 14,500 hectares of tropical forest and several miles of hiking
trails. The karst limestone nature of this placid pool makes it a very attractive turquoise. A
high concentration of mahogany trees in the surrounding forests has made it vulnerable to
clandestine logging.
One of Guatemala's oldest protected areas encompassing the watershed of its namesake
river connecting Lake Izabal with the Caribbean Sea, Río Dulce National Park covers
7,200 hectares along its 30-kilometer-long course. In many places, the banks of the river
are shrouded in dense tropical forest punctuated at one point by a large canyon with high
rock faces.
Natural Monuments
TVreality-showaficionadosmightrecall Yaxhá-Nakum-Naranjo Natural Monument as
the setting for Survivor Guatemala, filmed here during the summer of 2005. The park en-
compasses the ruins of three Mayan cities set amid dense tropical forest adjacent to Tikal
National Park. Also in the park is Yaxhá Lagoon, with its healthy numbers of crocodiles.