I didn't want to do the nine to five. 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 rain forest, green hills, clear streams, too many chattering birds and monkeys to count.

At night, the woods swarm with head-like 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. And the hammock beside me is Jacob Marlin, and this is his baby, the Belize

Foundation for Research and Environmental Education, or Be Free. A 1000 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 rain forest is like. Be Free is right at the juncture of several other

huge preserves, including the Bladen 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 laid-back dude in his 50s. His 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 Bladen, which is famously remote and inaccessible. As he hiked his way through it,

Jacob felt like he'd entered a time capsule.

We went to places that no human had been since age of Maya. We came upon clay statues of

monkey and jaguar gods. We saw burial grounds of Maya stuff clearly known had been there.

For the next two weeks, Jacob found himself exploring a world straight out of a fantasy novel.

You're like, oh my god, I think I see a cave opening. And then you go in there and then you walk for nine hours.

And then you look down 150 feet below you. There's a massive river flowing. And then you look over there.

And there's like mine pottery and skeletons and shit scattered over there.

...