What is up there? Otoch ma'ax yetel kooh

The Popol Vuh an important book for the Maya people of Central America, describes that the Gods, in search of creating a mankind made several mistakes. Before "us" it was a kind made out of wood, that were destroyed and became monkeys afterwards. As well this council book tells about two hero twins, with two older half brothers, named One Monkey and one Artisan, these brothers were jealous of the youngest brothers, when the twins were old enough they started showing their power, they made climb up One Monkey and One Artisan a tree, and this tree started to rise, higher and higher, the older brothers then were transformed into monkeys.

I'm not a historian, or a Mayan scholar, not even have read it all the Popol Vuh, but I can assume that for this people, the monkeys were important figures, as well as key presence for the health of the rain forest as seed distributors.


In our trip we visited a Spider Monkey Reserve, called Punta Laguna or Otoch ma'ax yetel kooh (House of the monkey and puma in Maya language). This reserve is a big effort of the local community
to preserve their forest. Mostly farmers (campesinos) and chicleros (getting chewing gum from a tree), these people organized themselves in a cooperative to run their eco-tours, and maintain the place, their beautiful habitat as nice as it can be. The guides, Mayan origin people are very friendly and reliable. The women sell their art-crafts in a system where they share the days of the week

They provide guided tours along the forest paths, their facilities are rustic, but very clean, and of course as this village doesn't have total access to electricity or other urban commodities that tourist are used to and in many cases are harmful to the environment, is important the reserve maintain at the minimum bad effects of the so called "civilization" activities.

Visitors can see the spider monkeys just as they live in nature, they are not in any confined place, they are not in a controlled weather facility, they eat, play, sleep and mate free in their home.


We were lucky to spot a group of 12 monkeys with 3 babies, our guide, told us, the babies were born in spring, we spent a long time just looking at them, as they playfully throw at us some fruit from the tree.
We continued our trek, Jose Alfredo, the guide, explained us about the Maya ruins located in this place and about the Chewing gum tree, the way they collected the juice from the tree, he showed us their medicine plants, explained us how to use them. He pointed to us the tiny entrance to a cenote, just a hole on the floor, the altar that takes care of the cenote and the big lake that put the name to the reserve.

Left: Chewing gum tree
Right: Cenote entrance










Supporting this kind of efforts is very important to the communities of people trying to preserve, to the wild animals, as these are one of the few natural refugees to them. Punta Laguna is not just for spider monkeys, on the other side of the lake, there are more wild animals, as the name of the reserve in maya is said, even house of the Puma.

Please, if you are visiting Yucatan or have friends going to this magical place, don't forget Punta Laguna.