I headed into the looters tunnel to cool off, shined my light around and there it was. Only 80 centimeters were exposed (about 2-1/2 feet), the size of a small TV set.

With its fine painting and its elaborate mural showing the mythic basis of kingship, the chamber has upended much of what we thought we knew about the early Maya. The mural shows that early Maya painting had achieved a high level of sophistication and grace well before the great works of the Classic Maya in the seventh century.

We found two limes and split them between the six of us. Yum.

I didn't want to tell her what an idiot I had been ? how I had put her and our family at risk.

We made a series of bad decisions, one after another after another ? and not getting food and water when it was right there was the last one. The first one was not turning back at the end of the first day.

We didn't tell anybody until March of 2002 ? that's when the April National Geographic was released with the first article about the site.