Palenque
Trip Start
Jun 16, 2008
1
18
23
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Palenque,
Central Mexico and Gulf Coast,
Mexico
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Friday morning and, as usual, we were up bright and early for our tour. We went to the Chiapas ruins first but on arrival were surprised to find that entry fee wasnīt included in the price of the tour - we hadnīt checked our tickets! Because we didnīt have enough money to pay for a guide as well as Agua Azul later, we just went round ourselves which worked out well in the end because we could see what we wanted to, understood a bit and saved some money. The ruins are over a thousand years old but still pretty well preserved and there were four zones to look around and a museum. We had to be back at the bus for 12:00pm to go to Agua Azul and as usual some people were late - the people we were going to be paying to go on the tour with had we had the money!
En route to Agua Azul we stopped at another waterfall, not too different from the one we visited in Costa Rica but we still had to pay 20 pesos to see it. A crazy taxi ride with some of the most dangerous overtaking manouveres possible from our driver, and we had reached Agua Azul - a series of freshwater, blue lagoons that you can swim in - safe and sound. When we first arrived the weather was really nice and we went for a swim in one of the lagoons which was freezing cold so really refreshing. Ten minutes later however we were running for cover as it was chucking it down and we ended up in a restaurant with a Spanish couple and two old, American ladies from our bus who are only a few days into their travels but are clearly going to end up sick of each other judging by the three disagreements they had in the space of the day we were around them!
Most of the tour was switching buses on the way back to Palenque and going to San Cristobal whilst me, Ellie and the Spanish couple were going back to Palenque. After the brief stop for the rest of the minibus to change onto a coach and for an Italian couple to demand their money back and acuse our taxi driver of being in the Mafia, the Mafia taxi driver took us back to Palenque - a little slower following the Italiansī criticisms of his prior driving! When we got back to Palenque we had a meal and wasted away the few hours until our night bus to Merida.
We had left our bags locked in a cupboard in reception at the hotel all day and when we went back to collect them my small rucksack has disappeared. Thankfully it didnīt have anything valuable in it so I wasnīt panicking majorly but was still pissed off because it had been at the front of the cupboard, the last thing to be put in there, but was now missing. After asking after its whereabouts and preparing to get angry and threaten to call the police, the guy on reception did what me and Ellie had failed to do and found it in the back of the cupboard. Whether it was a simple mistake that the bag had been moved to the back of the cupboard, or whether it was someones handywork having seen the bag with a padlock on it, I donīt know but I was just relieved to have it back and we could go to catch our bus to Merida!
