FINDING LOST CIVILIZATIONS This

During breakfast and some conversation, Manuel suggestedthat we drive to San Ignacio in his small Toyota pickuptruck, as the road was rough and isolated, which wouldleave my Suburban at risk to potential thieves. However, hehad no gas in his truck and asked that I fill it with the fuelfrom my spare five-gallon container, which was loaded ontop of the Suburban. I laughed inwardly because I knewbeforehand that more likely than not, my emergency gaswould be used to fill a Mexican vehicle instead of my own.After we filled up Manuel’s truck, his starter would notwork so we pushed the truck until it started. Once underway,our route took us north from Ixtapa toward San Blas.About four miles from Ixtapa, the south face of San Ignaciorevealed itself. From this vantage point, the top of the smallmountain certainly crested in a manner that let a viewervisualize a pyramid.However, the culture of West Mexico was not knownfor building grand pyramids like those of the Maya or theAztec. Rather, their pyramids were somewhat circular andnot grand in scale; in fact I saw such a mound in a field notfar from San Ignacio. As we approached San Ignacio fromits side, the small mountain took on the shape of a head,which let a viewer visualize the profile of a nose, a chin,and the top of a head. After passing San Ignacio we turnedwest and headed up a dirt path until we came upon a smalland muddy stream that was about twenty feet wide.Across the bank at the water’s edge a wire gate hadbeen strung across the property line. Manuel entered thestream and drove his truck right up to the gate while a friendjumped from the cargo bed of the truck, over the cab, andonto the hood to unlatch the gate. At that moment the truckstalled in the middle of the stream. Manual tried for about147