The word is out that Survivor filmed July through August in the national park of Yaxha in Guatemala. No wonder everyone was getting so dehydrated and cramping up in the first episode.

From what I read Yaxha is the third largest Maya city in Guatemala after Tikal and El Mirador. It had an estimated population of about 40,000 and excavations have not finished there. Yaxha is approximately an hour's drive from Tikal, and purpotedly Yaxha means 'Green Water', no doubt referring to the large lake at the site.

It made a great place to film the TV show, because of this Yaxha lake, already featured in the show, and a lot of unspoiled jungle in this park featuring crocodiles, tucans, howler and spider monkeys. Additionally from a production perspective, the site was already able to accomodate a large filming crew, since there was a large population of archaeologists with support staff there already.

The best news was that during filming supposedly there were staff from the government of Guatemala around whose job was to make sure that nothing in the ecosystem of the park was permanently disturbed and that the Maya structures were not harmed.

As far as the history and how much is revealed in terms of war or human sacrifice, it will be interesting to see in the upcoming episodes.

ChanChan if you read this, did you visit Yaxha on your pyramid tour of a few years back?