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It was a hot, bright afternoon in the Place Where the Sky Is Born. This is one of several translations of the Maya phrase Sian Ka an, the name for a 1,080-square-mile biosphere reserve on the Caribbean coast of Mexico s Yucatán Peninsula. A gentle current pulled me west down an ancient canal to the sea. The water was crystalline and just cool enough to be refreshing as I drifted past a centuries-old Mayan customhouse and the high white arcades of mangrove roots, convenient perches for darting purple martins, gray crowned cranes, and pink bromeliads with their spiky fronds. It was nearly silent despite the fact that Tulum, a once-sleepy town that has struggled in recent years to navigate the challenges brought on by mass tourism, sat barely 40 miles to the north. Tourism in the reserve has grown too, but the process has been slower, in large part because of careful management by Community Tours Sian Ka an, a cooperative that generates income for the local communities of ....