The two-day trek to El Mirador and the three-day stay was our introduction as a group to Petén, Guatemala.
Photos by David M. Barreda
Guatemala: The Future of Petén
I knew things were bad when Paulino dipped his empty plastic water bottle into a shallow, muddy swamp puddle.
Buried beneath deep jungle growth in Guatemala's northern reaches, the ancient Maya metropolis of El Mirador is worth the walking. And walking, and walking some more.
Go now for the rare chance to experience lush tropical forest and have the ancient city — more and more of which is being uncovered by archeologists every year — largely to yourself. Soon, both the wilderness and the solitude may be harder to come by.
Nadia Sussman, for the Pulitzer Center
San Francisco, California
Michael Stoll, for the Pulitzer Center
Laguna Del Tigre National Park, Guatemala
Michael Stoll, for the Pulitzer Center
La Pasadita, Guatemala
It's the last leg of our journey back from Guatemala and I marvel at the difference in the landscape from above — houses neatly dotted against the foothill ridges and valleys of California's slopi
I finally got to see more of Guatemala by land yesterday. I left Flores, Petén, with Kara and Nadia at 6 a.m.
As the sun emerges from the gray brown smog that hangs over Guatemala City's wet streets, we board our plane and are inundated by the sounds of English words, and babies crying — for the most
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Born in Perú and raised in Vermont, David Barreda studied Geography and Environmental Studies at Middlebury College and journalism at the University of Missouri. He currently is a staff...
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Kara graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism with a Master’s in Journalism. She received her B.A. in Literature from New College of Florida and has six years of...
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Michael Stoll is an environmental journalist, college journalism teacher and director of a nonprofit media-reform project in San Francisco. He first learned about the conflicting visions of the fate...
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Nadia worked three years as an investigator for death row habeas corpus appeals. She is currently producing a documentary short about two formerly incarcerated youth.
Her interest in international...