Palenque: Part 1
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
10
37
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Palenque,
Mexico
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
As we did so much in Palenque I've split it up into two seperate blogs, so I hope you enjoy them.
We arrived here after a decent enough 5 hour trip from San Cristobal, and had been recommended a place to stay called El Panchan, which was out in the jungle. It sounded great and it looked the business to when we got there. There was a few people on the bus that we had met on a few of our other trips so we went in and got a room. The accomodation was done in little cabins, with 2 rooms down and 2 rooms upstairs. Our room was called the Jaguar Room and our fellow travellers were in the Monkey Room, so we were happy with our name anyway! Little did we know that the room would have a massive tacky painting of a Jaguar on the wall, as well as very cheap pink lightbulb in the bathroom, that gave it a very particular look!! It turned out to be all above aboard and we wandered off into the jungle to explore. I say "jungle" but it was in fact a bit touristy, with lots of little cabins neatly tucked into the trees and a couple of big bars and restaurants so we're weren't entirely in the wilderness, eventhough our phones couldn't wouldn't work. Which to be honest wasn't all bad cos, using a mobile in the jungle, isnīt really getting in the swing of things! There was a strong hippy vibe to it too, lots of dreadlocked hair and flowing sarongs.....and that was just the men!
Our neigbours, who were all from England but living in Spain, were Barney, Sheila, and Shelly and her daughter Jasmine, all joined us for dinner and we discussed going to see some ancient Mayan ruins the next day. Myself, Bill and Eoin headed off for the mini bus service that dropped us off right inside the site. We got done a little on the prices cos we had to pay a "conservation fee" as well as an entrance fee, and then they tried charging us nearly 80 euors for a guide, so we were a little sceptical.
Our cabin, bottom right door
Having decided not to go for the guide we set off exploring.The sites really were amazing, so much history right in front of our eyes. The height and size of the buildings would take quite a while to build now so I donīt know how they did it back then. We spent a good three hours exploring and climbing what ever could be climbed. I hope the pictures do it some justice, cos it was quite hard to get it all in.
In the largest temple, the Mayan King Pakal was buried in an underground tomb which was closed to the public, not for any structural reason, purely because the temperatures in the tomb were so cold and the ice so thick, that it would be dangerous to let the public in. An impressive fact considering the temple is nearly 2000 years old. I was a little disappointed to hear later on that the tomb had in fact been moved to Mexico City in the 1950īs, where a lot of the remains of the King were stolen in 1985. It kind of took from some of the feel of the place.
Needless to say, we were still extremely impressed by it all and after all the walking and climbing, headed back for a very long siesta. So long in fact that it took 5 hours! We only got up for dinner and to discuss the next day's adventures in the watefall of Misal Ha and the lake of Agua Clara (part 2!)
So Iīll finish off part one here and hopefully get part 2 done today too. Some of the photos have mini stories attached so click on them to get more info....(if you want!)
Cheers
James
