After the tiring day of travel and trapsing around the ruins of Copán, Saturday was spent relaxing and doing absolutly nothing! It was great, we bearly left the hotel room all day. This was probably a good thing as we had booked a shuttle for 6am the next morning to take us to Flores on the way to Palenque in Mexico. So we got up at 5am and proceeded to pack up and were just leaving when we found a note under the door that told us that the shuttle was now leaving at 10am! So it was back to bed, but we didnt sleep: just stayed up. April read her girl with dragon tattoo book and I read the bible...yes the bible. I know this may sound strange to almost all the people who know me, but I had nothing else to read and I keep hearing all these stories April tells me, so I though it´d be good to see for myself. So far I´m half way through Exodus (the second book) and am actually surprised at the crazy stuff that happens...they don´t teach you this stuff in Catholic school, thats all I can say.
It seems that Honduras also operates on manaña time (manaña means tomorrow) as well as Guatemala because the bus didnt arrive until about 10:40am. We finally got on and squeezed in with 13 other people. It was actually pleasant watching the country side pass by, until we were dropped off at some intersection/bus station in the middle of nowhere and the guy just told us to wait for 30 minutes for the bus to Flores. So we waited, and waited, and waited for about 50 minutes and then the bus arrived, but it was not what we expected. It was a public bus that was already pretty much filled, and certainly not the first class bus that we were told about. Anyways we got on and couldn´t sit next to each other....April was sitting next to this relly dirty man and the guy I was sitting with was so fat and took up half my seat. On top of that, a little girl threw up right in the middle of the isle at the start of the journey...not pleasant! There´s really no concept of personal space in this country, and usually that wouldn´t bother me, but when you have a 10 hour bus ride through Guatemala, it kind of becomes a problem! But we eventually made it and have now had the horrific bus experience...check that off the list. We are certainly learning many important lessons this trip...always ask what type of bus you are taking!
We didnt arrive in Flores until about 11pm, so we had to find a hotel and organise transport to Palenque the next morning. The only bus that went there left at 5am, so we only had 4 hours sleep that night and then were up again for the next bus ride. This, thank god, was a nice mini bus and we each had a seat to ourselves. This was by far the best bus ride we have had. The border crossing into Mexico was easy and the ride was comfortable, we even had to take a boat across the Usimacinta River to officially be in Mexico. From there it was only about 1.5 hours to Palenque.
The place we stayed at in Palenque was amazing! Its called El Panchán and its a little complex filled with cabañas and a hotel and has little rivers running through it everywhere. We got settled in and booked a tour that takes us to Palenque ruins and 2 waterfalls; Misol Ha and Agua Azul for the following day. Then we took a lovely walk into Palenque town about 8kms and wandered there for a bit. We almost had a little drama then next morning...we were meant to meet the bus to take us to the ruins at 8am, and we thought we got there at 8am, but we actually got there at 9am because we hadn´t changed the time and Mexico is 1 hour ahead of Guatemala...another leson learnt, always ask for the time when you cross the boarder. But it all worked out. We caught a mini bus to the ruins and then met up with the tour before going to the waterfalls.
Palenque was absolutly amazing! I definitely now know why people say its the best ruins you can go to because it is so well reconstructed and set up for tourists. Beautiful landscaped plazas surround enormous stone buildings, that you can´t help but gaze in wonder. Its like no other site I have ever seen, or read about; the architectural style is so different and the carvings are exquisite. Because we were an hour late we had to hoof-it around the site, but we still got to see everything. It was really exciting to see all of the panels that April and I deciphered in our hieroglyphic writing class first hand. We had the best day for it too, as you can probably see from the photos, absolutly perfect weather! After visiting Palenque we went to a waterfall called Misol-Ha, which was really beautiful. Because the area has had heaps of rain lately, it was raging. We could even walk behind it, but we did get absolutly soaked in the process....it was still fun. The second waterfall we saw was actually a series of cascades that went on for about 1km. Usually its a beautiful shade of blue, hence the name Agua Azul (Blue Water), but again because of the rain it was more like Agua Café (brown). Still it was a magnificent site to see and the sound was so loud. April decided to go swimming with all of her clothes on, which I must admit looked really refreshing. It was funny watching her float down the river with the current until you run into the entirely safe barrier...a rope to pull yourself out. We are having many great adventures on this trip and April seems to be involved in most of them...on the way back to Palenque some random French guy on our mini bus made April dance Russian style because there was no room to stand while we were driving down the hill. It was the funniest thing that happened all day, and totally unexpected.
We stayed one more night in El Panchán, then on Tuesday morning we were off on another unexpected adventure! We booked a tour that took us to the site of Yaxchilan and Bonampak then back to Flores (which we were intending on going to anyways). Yaxchilan (pronounced Ya-shi-lan) was reached by first driving back to the boarder to Guatemala, then taking a 15 minute boat ride down the Usimacinta River to arrive at the hidden away site. This in itself was exciting, but the ruins were even more spectacular! The site was quite big and still set in dense jungle, it almost felt like we were back in El Mirador. We only had 2 hours at the site, so we hiked pretty fast to see it all. Amazing is the word I would use to describe Yaxchilan. We could hear howler monkeys in the distance and we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere...well we kind of were. The highlight of my day was seeing first hand one of the stelae I wrote about in my thesis, stela 6. Unfortunatly it had been re-set and the part that had the original carving before it was re-carved was under the concrete, but it was still amazing to see. Once again the architecture was different from anything we have ever seen, and Yaxchilan had these things called roof combs that soar into the sky on top of the buildings. Most of the big buildings had been reconstructed, which is good for tourism, but bad for us considering we know that concrete is not the best material for preservation. Anyways we hopped back on the boat and headed back to the boarder for lunch, then on to Bonampak.
Bonampak is a relatively small site, but its famous for its amazing murals! The colours are so well preserved and its simply breath-taking to view them up close. There were also amazingly big stelae here, and I mean big. Stela 1 is 20ft high...thats 6 meters! I definitely recommend taking the extra day to see both Yaxchilan and Bonampak if you are ever in this area!!! That night April and I stayed in a cabaña near the site of Bonampak which was really cute. There was music playing all night..not so great, but the rooms were comfortable and the food was good. It really felt like we were in the middle of the jungle...which we were, it just feels amazing.
I just realised how many times I have used the word amazing in this entry...sorry, but its just so amazing here!!!!
The next morning we got bak on a bus to Flores, then spent the night there, Flores is such a cute little island. We walked around for a buit then had dinner at this restaurant April raved about for their steaks, but not so great for me.... The hotel was really nice though, it had beautiful views of the lake so we watched the sunset. On Friday morning we were back on a bus headed to Lanquin. The bus was meant to take only 6 hours, but we spent an hour waiting at the bank of a river because we had to get the ferry across, then we kind of bypassed the town to go to the bigger town Cobán first. But after 9 hours we made it and this place is beautiful. The hotel we are staying at is set right on the river bank and we are living in a loft. It is so hot here and you´re constantly sweating, but its great. Tomorrow we are going to Semuc Champey, which are waterfalls and crystal blue waters to swim in. There are also caves that you can walk through and explore and you can go tubing down the river also, I cant wait...definitly need some time to relax.
