Alex of The Jungle

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After San Cristobal, I headed off to Palenque, to see one of Mexico's most impressive ruins. I didn't actually stay in Palenque (the city) because the town itself is not very nice. I stayed in the El Pachan jungle which is closer to the ruins. My cabin was literally in the middle of the jungle. Very cool. They cleared off walkways and such, so it's not like I needed a machete to make my way to the road. There was even a restaurant close to my cabin which served pretty good food. You could hear all sorts of creatures outside my window. Some nights I would hear something that would make a sort of "meeow" sound. Who knows what that could have been! I arrived at El Palchan on Monday evening, so I decided to spend all day Tuesday at the ruins. The ruins were a 3 km walk from my place. Not too bad....got there pretty quick. I first checked out the museum before I entered the ruins in order to read a little on the history of the ruins. They had some cool artifacts that they found at the ruins. I then headed off to see the ruins. Wow! They were impressive. They are located in the middle of the Mexican jungle. Local guides who I chatted with were telling me that they've only uncovered 2% of the ruins (the largest and most important). 98% are still uncovered and scattered throughout the jungle. The day was hot and HUMID! I got exhausted quick walking up and down the ruins. The steps to reach the buildings were high and steep. My legs were dying at the end of the day, and I still had to walk back to my cabin. Regardless of the brutal heat and humidity, I enjoyed visiting Palenque. I also learned that there are more non-Spanish dialects spoken there in Palenque and surrounding areas. I found out that people still speak Mayan. Crazy! I didn't know it still existed. One of the guides was educating me on this. He was a cool kid. I still have much to learn! Now I'm headed to the city of Campeche. Never been, but read that it's pretty and has a lot of history. Til next time.

alex

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Photos

Museum
Artifact found at the Palenque ruins.

Museum
More artifacts.

Museum
Cool looking figure.

Palenque Ruins
Ruins in the middle of the jungle.

Palenque Ruins
Some of the ruins still have carvings in place.

Palenque Ruins
More carvings.

Palenque Ruins
I entered a tomb. It was creepy.

Palenque Ruins
One of the coffins found inside the tomb.

Palenque Ruins
This ruin was off the beaten path.

Spider
Crazy lookin' Mexican spider. Can you see it's eyes? His face looks like a cartoon cat.

El Pachan Jungle
This is the jungle where my cabin was located.

Jungle
This was my cabin.

Butterfly
There were tons as I walked back to my cabin.