Mayan Ruins and Beautiful Waterfalls in Chiapas
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
1
16
141
Trip End
Ongoing
Palenque,
Mexico
Sunday, January 14, 2007
We arrived in Palenque at about 8am, after a twisty and back-stiffening overnight bus trip from Campeche. Immediately, we sought a collectivo to take us from the City of Palenque to an area closer to the ruins called El Panchen.
We checked into a room at Margarita & Ed´s, a collection of small bungalows set in the junglish compound called El Panchen. El Panchen is a former hippy hangout (commune?) founded in the 1980´s. Today, it houses about a half-dozen individually run hotels, all cabana and bungalow style. The hotels are set amongst trees and a few small winding ravines, with many small footbridges. Lonely Planet loved this place. In my opinion, it was a bit loud, dirty and run down, too many drugs and very very touristy
El Panchen - Frank
. There were over a half-dozen ¨tour agencies¨employing over a dozen aggresive and sleazy tour agents who stalk you around the compound. Okay, so it may not really have been stalking... but these guys sure were persistent, even after we bought a tour from them! Our cabana was divided into two different rooms, each with a private entrance. But as there was merely a mesh screen for a rooftop, there was very little privacy with our neighbor. We got to hear all his woes to his friends of having a bad trip (unknown substance...) the night before, and they later brought the dealer in to their chat! As soon as we heard him make a run for the bathroom (which shared a thin wall with our quarters...), we packed up our daypacks and left for the day. After settling into our interesting cabana, we caught a collectivo up the hill to the VERY IMPRESSIVE ruins of Palenque. Palenque is a massive Mayan ruin compound on the edge of the Sierra de Chiapas forest.It is also quite beautiful, set amidst large beautiful jungle foliage and families of howler monkeys. Completing the serene picture, there is a small river cuting through the ruins that forms several large waterfalls running down from the sites.
Most of the temples are open for climbing up and exploring through the inner tunnels and rooms
El Panchen - Our Cabana
. After my humiliating attempt to scale Uxmel several days earlier, I eyed the Palenque temples with confidence and eagerness. Today would be the day I would conquer the ruins, finally! I am proud to say I completed this task, scaling several of the ruins until we ran out of steam. Exhausted from a day-long Stairmaster workout, we made our way down past the waterfalls to the museum. (Coincidentally, when we signed our names into the museum guestbook, we noticed the names of some friends we met in Campeche - Jessica Guacamole & Steve ElGuapo)After the museum, we decided to walk back to El Panchen, thinking it was only a quarter mile or so. About an hour later, we finally arrived back at the hotel, kicked off our shoes and passed out. Later that night, we enjoyed a dinner of a Cheeseburger, French Fries, Pizza and Muchas Cervezas. How Mexican, huh? Well, at least the pizza had jalapeno peppers on it!
The next morning, we checked out of El Panchen to catch a shuttle bus to San Cristobal. We had purchased a tour package that included stops at 3 beautiful waterfalls along the Yaks-Ha (Blue Water) River en route and transfer to a first class bus to continue onto San Cristobal. After the driver showed up 30 minutes late, we piled into the shuttle bus with a dozen other tourists and left
El Panchen - Our Cabana inside
. The first stop was a tall waterfall called Misoh-Ha. It was beautiful and powerful, dropping 30 meters (100 feet) into a lovely swimming hole. We climbed down stairs and along rocks to view the falls from a cave behind the waterfall. Very cool.
The next stop was supposed to be Agua Clara waterfall. I can´t tell you what it looks like because the driver just kept cruising past the turnoff sign! When we later arrived at the next stop (Agua Azul) and inquired about Agua Clara, he gave a handful of different excuses to different people. He was stuck with a busload of rather annoyed tourists.
We spent the next couple hours hiking around Agua Azul, a designated National Park. Agua Azul is a collection of over 500 waterfalls and dozen swimming holes, falling down several kilometers of limestone riverbed. The water was amazingly crystal blue and refreshingly cool. We stopped for a swim in a few places. One swimming hole had a rope hanging from a tree to swing into the river, a la Tarzan. Check back later for our movies!
After Agua Azul, the shuttle bus driver took us to the main highway to catch a bus to San Cristobal, a couple hours away.
Cheers, Kay
