Acknowledgments

Very grateful thanks go to Señora Barbara de Montes, of Mérida and Cancén, for so enthusiastically introducing me to Yucatán and so generously sharing her knowledge on everything from birds to architecture—especially for pointing out private places and knowing it was important for me to sometimes do some solitary brooding. Thanks, also, to David Uicab, who showed me many beautiful things about his country; to Merle Greene Robertson, who revealed fascinating information about Mayan ruins; to Señor Moises Morales for sharing his conclusions about the Mayan decline; and to Señor Alberto Montes Laviada, who smoothed a journey and made it possible to visit his family’s henequen hacienda. And I thank the winds that spoke at the cenote of X-toloc and the black vulture that witnessed my intention.