Danish archeologist Frans Blom (1893–1963) was one of the first to excavate Palenque, a Mayan city about 150 km east of San Cristóbal de las Casas. It was in the jungle that Frans Blom met his wife, Swiss German journalist Gertrude Duby (1901–1993), who had come to Chiapas to begin a new life. Working on behalf of the Mexican government, Trudi Duby was photographing members of the Lacandon people, the only Maya never conquered or converted by the Spanish. From then on, La Selva Lacandona rain forest was the common denominator in the professional and personal lives of Frans and Trudi Blom.