The paths bend around them — not the other way.
Before the buildings went up, we had the land surveyed for trees. Not for lumber — for what not to cut.
The big trees stayed. A few of them are in odd places now, in the middle of a path, between two buildings. We bent the paths around them instead of the other way.
The species we kept, mostly: zapote, chechén (careful, it burns the skin), chacá (the cure for chechén, conveniently), guayacán. Also a handful of older ceibas, which are considered sacred in Maya tradition and, more practically, impossible to replace.
What lives in them now: trogons, motmots, parrots, the occasional pizote, a small iguana population that mostly ignores people.
