While I’ve been working on a new map for my upcoming book The Tree of Life, I thought it’d be fun to share some of the locations, mostly in my home country of Belize, that inspired many of the places of the Xibalba depicted in The Jade Necklace books.

Some of my fondest memories as a kid was taking trips to the Cayo district, especially to Mountain Pine Ridge to swim in the rivers. And that’s why if I had to choose my favourite part of Xibalba, it’d likely be the Crocodile Mountains of the West.