We got to experience the Mayan ruins around Palenque and after crossing the border to Guatemala the even more impressive Mayan temples in Tikal.
Crossing the border: we had no visa for Mexico ( somehow we managed to just breeze through the crossing in Tijuana and not get our visa) and were held up, being told we need to pay close to $300....., but wait, we had a name from an amigo, who gave us shelter in a town called Tenosique, and after he paid for a chicken dinner and we all had dinner with his friends who were fanatics about Mayan culture, but had some real weird way of interpreting and integrating the Mayan way into their relationship AND gave us a lecture about it pretty much all night long while nobody else got a word in edgewise and his really young wife was sensing all his wishes without words. A very self observed photographer with strong narcissistic tendencies.
The friend, the name, the amigo....all worked out, we payed the fee of about $30 for a "normal" visa each and got through. Green light for Tikal.
We took the bus, left our bikes at the hotel in Flores by the lake and our amazing guide took us into the world of the Mayans, which is all together a mind blowing experience, since we still don't know all there is to know about this huge empire that lasted a 1000 years or so before it declined some time 8th or 9th century.
Their architecture was so precise in relationship to the seasons, solstice and equinox and that is only one tiny little part to be curious enough to venture out and get more reading material about the time when this culture was ruling in these regions.
