Mayabelle
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2007
1
24
29
Trip End
Ongoing
Palenque,
Mexico
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
We left Chetumal at 7.30 am on our trek West in convoy with Terry and Margo and Vern for Palenque almost 500 kilometers away. We had a good drive with a mixture of good and bad road and made it by mid afternoon.
The Mayabell campground is close to the ruins inside the national park but is small and more for the backpacker types. We squeezed ourselves in though because it has a pool and is surrounded by jungle at the foot of the hills makes it the most pleasant campground available.
We may have looked a bit out of place with dreadlocks and tie-dyed clothing the order of the day. We had an ok meal at the restaurant the first night and enjoyed the pleasant rasta type live music with Bongo drums and guitar playing vocalist.
The next day we drove the 2 kilometers to the ruins and are glad we did as it was pretty steep. Palenque is in the hills in a jungle setting and was an amazing place. We were able to climb most of the structures for the first time and the temples and pyramids with crypts and grottos were fascinating to explore. Couple this with the souvenir shopping for the crew and it equates to the best Mayan site we have seen yet
First climb at Palenque
. We were laden down with marble Chess sets and clay and leather by the time we were finished. We offloaded it all to Vern and Terry and walked along the river with its waterfalls and rope bridges all the way back to the campground.
Larry is one of the few dogs privileged enough to tour these ruins as we smuggled him in a bag with a hat over his head. Being a national park dogs were not allowed. We couldn't leave him in the RV as it was a stinking hot day and we spent a few hours up at the ruins.
It started raining in the night and the next days long drive to St Christobal was wet and windy all the way. We stopped and due to the weather had a quick look at the Cascadas de Agua Azul. Translated it means the Waterfalls of the Blue Water. We were the only ones there and got quite wet before hitting the windy steep road for the rest of the trip.
It is just over 200 kilometers but took us over 6 hours due to the mountains and all the topes through the small villages. We climbed above 2200 meters and the power of the rig dropped noticeably due to the thin air.
A couple of the sights along the way included some drunken workers knocked off for the rain staggering and falling in the roadside culvert and a couple of young school boys in a full on after school fight in the middle of the highway oblivious to the traffic passing by.
We had a taco lunch at a roadside stall and fed the family for $10. Have I told you how much we are enjoying the food here?
We missed out on a lot of the views due to the weather but still enjoyed the drive. Not as much as arriving at the campground though.
That's us for today, enjoy the slideshow and we'll see you soon,
The McGregors-5
Comments
Fantastic!
It all looks so fantastic - what incredible memories you're all going to have. Keep the travel blogs coming - we're loving them!
Travel safely and stay well,
Missing you!
Much love,
Fosters
(Need to know when Hazel's birthday is Bev - drop me a line when you get the chance.)