Calakmul

The video shows him and his team exploring areas of restricted access in the Mayan cities of Calakmul and Chichén Itzá.

They believe it is second in size only to Calakmul, thought to be the largest Mayan site in ancient Latin America.

Driving west from El Hormiguero toward the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the road wends through ceibas, strangler figs, and sapodillas, a tree prized since Maya times for its chicle gum.

For instance, the original route through the Calakmul reserve crossed one end of a vast cavern, dubbed “the bat volcano,” that’s home to about 3 million bats of eight species.

Under a starry sky in the Calakmul reserve, as unseen frogs chirp and insects trill, Medellín Legorreta patiently works to untangle a bat caught in a mist net.