There are 58 Cancún attractions listed on TripAdvisor. As tourists visit and vote upon, these places fall or rise in the league. A bad review causes a venue to topple, losing ratings; a good review sees it soar above the competition. Yet one attraction has managed to hang onto its top spot since 2009. Last year, it was voted the best adventure park in Mexico. Selvatica Canopy Expedition and Adventure Tour is officially the ride of your life.
Selvatica is about an hour's drive from Cancún's Hotel Zone, but it is well worth the visit. This is an attraction for adrenaline junkies, which will have you flying through the tree-tops; racing along wild tracks in dune buggies; then plunging into the cool freshness of a cenote.
The adventure takes place out in the Yucatán Jungle. There are twelve zip-lines here, comprising of some of the highest and fastest in the country. The biggest of them all, only for the most daring visitors, is 65 feet (20 meters) above the ground. That one is obviously not for those suffering from vertigo. For the less adventurous, there are zip-lines much closer to the jungle floor.
The adults will then pair up to ride dune buggies, across rough jungle tracks, towards a crystal clear cenote, thirty minutes down the road. This is not a ride for children. They will be conveyed, more sedately, in a truck. For those at the wheel of the buggies, this will be driving like you've always wanted to do it: fast, reckless and fraught with wild abandon. Why should rally drivers have all the fun?
It may sound like this is an adventure park where you take your life into your hands. However, the facilities are quite safe. At each stage, trained personnel ensure that everyone is safely harnessed and experiencing nothing but unadulterated fun. They can cater for youngsters as young as three years old. The activities are then graded upwards to match every visitor's nerve and stamina.
It is a creature that has become iconic in film, art, literature, legend and national identity. The mighty jaguar, whose fur bedecked ancient Aztec warriors and whose aspect fuelled images of their Gods. Once ranging throughout the North and South Americas, it's been pushed further and further south until it is no longer seen in Canada, while it's nearly gone from the USA. But its dwindling numbers, near threatened with extinction, still roam the dense jungle reserves of Mexico.
The jaguar (Panthera onca) is the only panther native to the Americas or, indeed, to the western hemisphere. For many, the stereotypical jaguar is black. Such notions are fuelled by appearances like that in 'Apocalypto'. However, most jaguars look more like their cousins, the leopards.
Jaguar, as it's commonly seen
There are some distinct differences between jaguars and leopards though. The jaguar is heavier and stockier, weighing in at 124–211lbs (8s 9lbs-15s; 56–96kg). It is also longer, from head to the base of the tail, measuring 1.62–1.83 metres (5.3–6 ft). Finally, the markings on the body, known as rosettes, are thicker, blacker and less numerous than on the leopard.
This isn't to say that black jaguars don't turn up naturally from time to time. Melanism, a condition causing an excess of black pigmentation, can occur, but only roughly 6% of the jaguar population exhibit this. Even then, direct sunlight will illuminate the markings blending into the fur. Incidentally, there are no black panthers as a separate species of big cat. They are all melanistic jaguars, leopards, tigers or lions.
Melanistic jaguar, aka black panther
The opposite can also occur, with albino jaguars showing up as white panthers. These are less common in Mexico, as they are further south in Paraguay.
Jaguars are carnivores. Their diet consists of a large variety of animals, which they hunt with powerful efficiency. Like all big cats, they are adapt at biting deeply into the throats of their prey, effectively suffocating them. However, there is something special about jaguars, which makes them unique amongst felines. They have a second method of slaughter.
Jaguar bringing down a tapir
They bite down between their prey's ears, crushing the temporal bones at the base of the skull. In this way, the jaguar's canine teeth can penetrate the brain and instantly kill their victim. It's believed that this adaption was learned 11,000 years ago, when the late Pleistocene extinctions left them with little to eat but armoured reptiles, like turtles.
It may be reassuring to know, therefore, that human beings are not the jaguar's natural prey. (The situation is more often reversed, hence the fact that jaguars are heading towards extinction, due to deforestation and human hunters.) This isn't to say that jaguars won't attack humans, if they are provoked. They have no fear of us and, in an unarmed fight, the jaguar will win. However, they are elusive and will go out of their way to avoid humans. They will only attack if sick, injured or feel that their cubs are being threatened.
Jaguars don't come into the cities and resorts, so you are most likely to only see one if you visit somewhere like Xcaret. This video was filmed there.
Tours into the Yucatán jungle, one of the few remaining natural habitats of the jaguar, tend to be with experienced guides. Mauled tourists are bad for business, so you would be thoroughly protected, on the off-chance that you encountered one. However, should you find yourself in the unlikely situation of being stranded there alone, with a jaguar staring at you, then there are things that you can do.
First you can rejoice in the fact that you are experiencing an extremely rare encounter.
Secondly, do not run. That might be against all instinct, but running people look like prey. You'll be doing nothing but triggering the hunter in your new friend.
Thirdly, don't stare at it. Watch it, by all means, but do not look straight into its eyes. That's the feline equivalent of saying, 'would you like a fight?' You don't. It's bigger than you. Instead, face it, but look past it, or at the ground in front of it, or to the side of it. Not the eyes.
Fourthly, back away slowly. The jaguar is a hide and ambush kind of hunter, just like any cat. If it's in full view, watching you, then it's not actually hunting you. You're just the current entertainment, while it evaluates you to see if you're a threat to it. Backing away slowly is your way of saying, 'I'm no threat. I'm really lovely. Bye.'
By now, all should be well. The jaguar will have either stayed where it is or gone away, bored by the strange human. In the utterly bizarre circumstance that it decides to attack, then raise your arms in the air, wave them around and start shouting. This makes you look bigger and more dangerous than you actually are and might deter it. Above all, don't start running, even at this point, because it can speed along at 35 miles per hour and you probably can't.
Jaguar inspired art and tours can be found all over Mexico, though its actual habitat has mostly been pushed back to very narrow strips of reservations. Hopes that this magnificant cat can survive were given a boost, in 2009, when one was spotted in central Mexico, for the first time in a century.
Through the ages of exploration and empire building, into the age of communication, it can sometimes feel like humanity knows every inch of its own planet. This seems especially true in the modern world. If someone sneezes, in a far away land, then a dozen Tweets can tell you about it, in real time. Satellites scour the skies, feeding back images from desolate places. Aeroplanes cross-criss above us, allowing passengers and crew alike to constantly peer down upon the landscape below. Adventurers, pioneers and profiteers still trudge off into the wilderness, just seeking out whatever it there to find.
Yet, despite all of this, uncontacted communities of people still turn up from time to time. These are tribes who have survived the millennia in perfect isolation from the rest of humanity. Those with a separate destiny, untouched by globalisation, the world's major religion, technology and international politics. They have no foreign policy, because they didn't know that there were any foreigners.
It is the stuff of fiction. Lost cities and lost tribes, sometimes living just a few miles into the undergrowth, only to emerge wide-eyed at the unexpected meeting. Arthur Conan Doyle famously covered this ground, in his 1912 novel, 'The Lost World'. There have been countless books and movies, on the same theme, in the interim. 'End of the Spear' (2006) is the most recent. This docudrama recounts the true life story of five American missionaries making contact with the Huaorani tribe of Ecuador. Their proselytizing eventually resulted in all five being speared to death.
In reality, there are a surprising number of uncontacted tribes, which are known about in the world today. Some have been spotted from afar, while others are reputed to exist, as intermediary tribes have reported that they are there. Brazil holds the record. It's believed that there are 67 uncontacted tribes within its borders. Many in extreme danger from logging concerns, wherein their forest homelands are shrinking. Previous disastrous meetings, between tribes and loggers, have been known to end in massacres, either through violence or contact with Western diseases, for which these people have no immunity. Organisations, like Survival, continue to work on their behalf.
By the 20th century, it was believed that all indigenious people in North America had been in contact with the worldly people around them. It was, therefore, a bit of a surprise, in August 1911, when a Yahi Indian named Ishi, emerged from the foothills near Oroville, California, USA. Ishi was the last of his tribe and he died five years later from tuberculosis. It was even more of a shock when, in 1924, the Lacandón tribe of Southern Mexico made contact. As far as can be known, they really were the last uncontacted people in North America.
Lacandón people, 1933-34
At first, it was believed that the Lacandón were an undiscovered Maya tribe, living in the lush, dense Lacandona jungle, away from the influence of the Spanish conquistadors. This was true, as far as it went, but it transpired that the Lacandón knew all about the Mexicans. Some especially selected people had even traded with Mexican ranchers, over the centuries, though none had suspected how many lived out there nor even that those individuals were part of an unknown tribe.
The Lacandón began as a composite people, made up originally of survivors from Maya villages. Their ancestors might have been women and children, hidden away, as the Spanish appeared on the horizon; or men limping away from the horrors of an uneven battle. Or there could have been other reasons for their personal tragedies.
As the conquistadors brought foreign diseases, like smallpox, huge numbers of Maya died. In some cases, this left just handfuls or even sole individuals, out of once populous settlements. The remnants of these clashes and communities congregated at the ruined Maya towns and cities. They were rescued by other survivors and taken into the jungle.
The original people were all Maya, all speaking a similar language, but with various cultural and linguistic differences. Imagine taking a couple of Americans, a few Canadians, a lone Australian, two Afrikaners, a family of New Zealanders, two British children and an Irish elder. Throw in a German and a dozen Dutch people for good measure. Now isolate them and return a generation later to see what that did to the English language and cultural norms.
Would water enter a sink through a faucet or a tap? Would we wrap a baby's bottom in diapers or a nappy? Would the traditional turkey meal happen at the end of November or the end of December or both? These were the sort of issues that confronted the traumatized survivors of various Maya cultures; and it resulted in a new, patchwork Mayan language.
Lacandón people, 1956
By the 18th century, the fusion of all these different Maya influences had resulted in distinct Lacandón traditions and language. It was firmly rooted in Maya, but had become something different. They still practiced the Maya religions, including pilgrimages to the Maya holy places, dotted around Mexico. These sites were only given up when there was evidence that the conquistadors had discovered them. The Lacandón wrote those pyramids, cenotes and other spots off as desecrated. In short, they avoided all Mexicans, in order to remain undiscovered. Their own history told them that contact with the outside world was too dangerous to contemplate.
Temples of Yaxchilan, deep in the Lacandón jungle; unknown to outsiders, until the Lacandón took them there.
The 20th century brought with it more Mexican loggers and farmsteaders. They had been slowly encroaching on Lacandón land throughout the previous century. The tribe had simply moved deeper and deeper into the jungle, until it became obvious that they were running out of sustainable land in which to retreat. In 1924, ambassadors from the tribe invited the Mexicans in. Anthropologists immediately descended upon the area, eager to document these people, before the rest of the world influenced them too much.
The contact, of course, did bring about the feared decimation of the Lacandón. By 1943, it was feared that the people would become extinct. Conflicts with loggers and disease were again the major contributions to their deaths. However, the Lacandón not only pulled through, but their population now numbers around 500 people.
Their survival has come at a great cost to their culture though. Almost as soon as they were discovered, the Roman Catholic church was sending missionaries and building churches in the Lacandón heartland. Initially there was great resistance to the evangelism, but Christianity has steadily taken hold. Later Protestant missionaries learnt from the lessons of their Catholic predecessors and tried a new approach. It was highly successful. It is now believed that the last southern Lacandón priest has died, without finding anyone to whom he could pass on his sacred secrets. Christianity has yet to take hold in the northern Lacandón highlands.
Increased contact with scholars, loggers, farmsteaders, traders and, more recently, tourists, saw the younger Lacandón, in particular, start to embrace Western ideas. One writer, John McGee (2002), stated 'that within four years of the introduction of television, traditional ritual practices among the highland Lacandón has been reduced to just two families and one individual'. However, in the northern village of Najá, the whole community continues to tell Lacandón tales and resist the pressures of modernization as best they can. Read more about the modern Lacandón on a website maintained on their behalf: Lacandón Maya.
Endless Tours blog began in May 2010, as a way of passing on interesting information about Mexico.
We are based in the Cancun area, but run tours across Mexico. With over 10 years experience in the field, we know what we're talking about. Please feel free to browse our website to see if there is a tour for you: www.endless-tours.com
Thirdly, don't stare at it. Watch it, by all means, but do not look straight into its eyes. That's the feline equivalent of saying, 'would you like a fight?' You don't. It's bigger than you. Instead, face it, but look past it, or at the ground in front of it, or to the side of it. Not the eyes. 
Their ancestors might have been women and children, hidden away, as the Spanish appeared on the horizon; or men limping away from the horrors of an uneven battle. Or there could have been other reasons for their personal tragedies. 
