Wow! Time flies! First it was the Christmas break, then a big trip in January, now it's suddenly February, and I haven't entered a single blog in the meantime. I could tell it's been a while since I had so much difficulty remembering the right combination of username and password. (I'm sure no one else ever has the trouble...)

I had a really cool experience in January. In honor of our 20th anniversary, my wife and I took a cruise down to the Yucatan Peninsula. We were on board a major cruise line, but arranged for the trip in conjunction with an LDS tour service. So, they had hosts that took us on specialized tours.

We visited three areas with Mayan ruins. In each place, local tour guides would show us around and tell us what they believed took place in the areas. Then our LDS friends hired by the tour service, would give us a different slant on what LDS scholars believe happened in the areas and which approximate areas of the Book of Mormon the cities may have been near.

It was my first time to visit ruins and authentic Central American jungle. Particularly in light of having written novels about people living in the areas, it was very interesting to do some actual field research on what it would be like to have been there. I poked around and wandered through the trees as much as the ruins themselves.

I found that overall it was much like what I've seen in nature films and photos, but there were still some interesting things to note when seeing it first hand. I can see how an army (such as the Lamanites who pursued King Limhi and his people) could lose track not only of the people they were pursuing, but of their general direction as a whole. When the trees are so tall and thick, that even the sun is hard to see, it can be difficult at best to sense direction.

I was also impressed with how thoroughly the jungle retakes the ruins. They said that there was one expedition that had been excavating a site for several years back in the '50s when they ran out of funding. About 5 or 6 years later, they found a new backer and went back down to do more excavation. They spent two months searching, but COULDN'T EVEN FIND the ruins they had been working on. They had been totally swallowed up by jungle growth again.

I took photos of tree roots fingering their way in between stones in walls, trying to consume ruins that were part of the tours. It's easy to imagine how completely untouched ruins can be hidden. Thank goodness for GPS systems today.

I'll add more about this later. Meanwhile, I'm letting the world know I'm still alive and kicking...

Read the original "Lines of our Times" post here.