We are riding on a rowboat on the Naha lagoon when our guide Juan, stops the row for a moment. It seems like if he had remembered something, he keeps it to himself and keeps on rowing while he asks:
– Do you know why the dog stole the crocodile´s tong?
– The dog stole who? What? Answers one of us.
– Juan laughs heartily.
Juan is Lacandon and lives in Naha, he is proud of his culture and traditions, and it is obvious. Leisurely but without pause, he creates a story for us little by little, the story of the dog and the crocodile. When he finishes, we are all dying with laughter.
Honestly, there would not be anything I would hate the most than spoiling Juan´s story, so I will leave you with the doubt of how this story ends, but if you visit Naha you will be able to ask him.
Through the tours that we will do under his guide, Juan will not stop talking about the legends of the Lacandon people to which he belongs, about the properties of the plants that we find while doing the tours and the habits of the rich fauna of the jungle.
The lagoon forms a beautiful frame around the Ecotourism Center, one of the most comfortable places to stay. Spotless cabins, well illuminated, comfortable, with mosquito nets in the roof and windows; in each of them there even is a small living room with a fan. There is also a meeting room and a restaurant.
At the end, our jungle adventure was really comfortable and frankly we all thought it was great.
Living experiences.
After a refreshing sleep we went out to find out what else Naha had to offer. We immediately found a sign:
“Hach Akium”, God of all Gods. He created the sky and the jungle. In the sky he sowed stars and in the jungle, trees. The roots of the trees and the stars are one and the same, that is why when a tree falls a star falls.
Chan Kin Viejo (Chan Kin the Old)
In the Maya Lacandon, the word Naha means “Water House” and that is how families from the Ecotourism Center treat the place where they live, as a house. It is a natural protected area, not only by an Official Act but also by the beliefs and way of life of its inhabitants. That is why Nahaís offer is not focused on being a tourism attraction but an experience to the travelers.
So, what do they offer? ¡Living experiences! they told us; for two perhaps three seconds I must have made a face that showed that I was more lost than a penguin on the road because someone explained to me immediately: It is like living, smelling, cooking and feeling the things that people there live and feel, exactly the same way they do them (or they would do them if you were not be there trying to know something about life), in their daily routines.
That way you can learn how to mold clay or visit their nurseries and collaborate there for a while. They also offer tours through the jungle, so you can observe birds and plants, and if you like gastronomy, you can learn how to make tortillas or you can drink ìbalcheî (a fermented beverage) or you can learn how to cook ìkíorbi kaxî (Lacandon chicken) or any other dish from the Maya cookbook as a different experience. Of course, we must let your tourism operator know our interest in doing this with one week in advance because some of the dishes require special ingredients that must be gotten in the jungle and that can take a while.
After all of these, later, when visiting the cascade or ridding on a rowboat the beautiful lagoon of Naha, with turquoise blue water, you feel like the world is a little different, some more alive or perhaps you are the one different to the world.
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