I didn't want to do the 9 to 5.

I was not going to take the normal path.

I'm sitting in a hammock in, well, paradise, if your idea of Paradise is kind of the classic one.

Lush rainforests, green hills, clear streams, too many chattering birds and monkeys

to count.

At night the woods swarm with headlight beetles, which are like giant

fireflies. It feels like Pandora.

I wanted to go see some tropical forests and I wanted to go catch snakes and crocodiles and stuff that I did.

In the hammock beside me is Jacob Marlon, and this is his baby,

the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education,

or Be free.

A 1,000 acre preserve in the Maya Mountains, dotted with thatch huts, and visiting biologists

who come here from all over the world to study what a healthy rainforest is like.

Be free is right at the juncture of several other huge preserves,

including the Blayton Nature Reserve,

the crown jewel of Belize Wilderness Areas, which is why Jacob bought it 30 years ago and has lived here as its conservator ever since.

It connects all the other preserves into one massive wild forest.

Jacob's a laid-back dude in his 50s.

He has long hair, parted in the middle.

Kind of reminds me of the actor Crispin Glover.

He came here in 1993 as the reptile guy on a team of biologists

that were exploring the Blayton, which is famously remote and inaccessible. As he hiked

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