The drive from San Cristobal de las Casas to Palenque was
slow and challenging. Driving in Mexico
has really made driving in Canada and Australia seem so easy. We were winding up, down and around mountains
and through villages. There were so many
speed bumps it was impossible to make good time. It took us nearly 4.5 hours to travel
200km. When we finally made it to
Palenque, we got lost before we managed to find the road to the ruins and a
place to stay. In amongst the jungle we
found a hotel called Mayabell. I was
wanting air conditioning, like usual, but we decided to go the cheap way and
slept in the van overnight. Despite the
humidity we did get a little rest. We
awoke to the calls of howler monkeys in the trees surrounding us. We wanted to get started at the ruins early
to avoid the midday heat and headed there soon after they opened in the
morning. We found a parking spot, paid a
local kid to “watch” the van and started out on our mission to climb some Mayan
pyramids.
The Palenque ruins are from around the 6th
century A.D. and well preserved, I guess.
There were several structures including a Palace, a ball court, temples
and tombs. We climbed all but the main
pyramid where no one is allowed. Given
how steep the steps are, it’s not hard to imagine someone taking a tumble. There were limestone and stucco carvings
showing the language, their gods and their rituals. The Maya sure liked to sacrifice people,
especially their enemies and prisoners.
They worshipped gods of the underworld, the sun, jaguars, and even
corn. We also checked out the museum
where many of the artefacts were kept.
It was very impressive. We bought
some souvenirs and got out of the chaos and went in search of another place to
stay.
I had read on the lonely planet website about traveller’s
being attacked and robbed all through this area, there is one particularly
heavy story where a European guy travelling on his own had had a big night and
returned to his cabana only to wake up with a person on top of him strangling
him to unconsciousness. Later that day
when he came around, he found his wallet, passport and of course money missing
and had to deal with police, immigration and doctors for the rest of his
day. To say the least we did not want to
take any chances and after wandering through the ruins for the day, found a
safe place to stay at Margarite and Ed’s establishment. It was
a cool scene with travellers from all over the world hanging out and drinking
Coronas and tequila.
