In the 1930's the community of Uaxactun was established by "chicleros" (natural chewing gum latex collectors). Uaxactun is located 23 km north of Tikal in the heart of the Maya Jungle in Peten, Guatemala. As Tikal being the most important city in the Calssic Maya period (300 to 900 AD), cacao trading was very important in this area. Don Chico is a settler of the community of Uaxactun who is the guardian of some ancient cacao trees that his father found in the jungle in the 1940's only 7 km west form Uaxactun. It is believed that this cacao is one of the oldest existing today. Archaeological research has been conducted and it confirmed that the soil around the cacao is at least 450 years old. Around these ancient cacao trees you can see evidence of mayan archeology, some stones which look like parts of a mayan stela (carved monument) are scattered around the trees which evidence the precense of mayan activity in the past.

As part of our project we want to introduce native plants which may be used to produce non-timber products to make the restoration projects economically sustainable. We had heard about this native cacao and we decided that it would be a great product for our project at the same time that we would help to the propagation of this ancient cacao around Peten. This cacao is well adapted to the weather and soil conditions of Peten so by reproducing it we will also help local farmer to have a new product which is economically attractive and good for the environment.

We did some research and asked some local friends and found about Don Chico Pop. He lives in the community of Uaxactun and along with his son Saul, who is studying Forest Engineering, they are taking care of this ancient cacao in the Mayan Garden they have around the cacao trees.

We decided to go and look for him and see if we could get some seeds to plant in our project. He is a very nice person and was very happy that we were interested in the cacao. He took us to his Mayan Garden where the cacao trees are and told us the story on how his father found it and how he takes care of it. He gave us 8 cacao pods so we could get enough seeds for our nursery.

We will plant some of the seeds as direct seeding and some were taken to our nursery to get the seedlings. We hope we can successfully reproduce this special ancient cacao so the species is not lost and can be helpful for other small farmers.