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Published: August 15th 2023
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Palenque
Mayan temple After nearly a day in the airports and flying we eventually get to Palenque. We had to take a flight back to Mexico City and then transfer to a plane to take us to Val…., from which we had a minibus to Palenque. It seemed a bit odd flying back to Mexico City but I can imagine that if the tour started anywhere other than Mexico City it would be difficult to fill, so understandable.
We are up early again, but not as early as the day before setting off to Monte Alban, but this time we are having a tour of a Mayan settlement, another archeological site - my grandson would love this holiday as he is only just 7 but already wants to be an archeologist and of course a gamer (designing games but he says they will have an archeology basis).
We decided not to do the jungle walk as it meant a really early start to the day and we have to remember that we are also on holiday so I meet up with the group. Mike decided that he was not going to come with me today as he was
not feeling the best and also needed to be near a toilet all the time!! We arrive at the Palenque ruins and meet up with our guide who is really nice and very knowledgeable but also very easy to understand. It appears 100s of ruined buildings are spread over 15sq km but only a few compacted areas have been excavated.
You cannot believe that everything built here is without any metal tools or mechanical tools it is so amazing and every time you see another ruin you get even more amazed that people so long ago could produce these buildings. These ruins are surrounded by forest and it appears this is part of a national park. The Temple de las Inscriptions the first temple you see. This temple is the tallest and most stately of the temples and was where most of the sacrifices happened - these Mayan people could be quite harsh - but it appears that the afterlife was expected to be better than being alive on earth - so I can see where they came from but, being a scaredy cat, I am not sure I would have been putting my self forward to being sacrificed - I think I would definitely have been at the back of the queue.
In the afternoon we go to the Roberto Barrios waterfalls which was amazing. Unfortunately I do not have any photos as I was in the water most of the time and not really sure that my iPhone is waterproof enough and, guess what, I forgot to bring the waterproof pouch I brought in the Caribbean which is really annoying. I have decided that this last minute packing is not good as I forget so many things that would make my trips so much easier.
Anyway, you can jump into the next pool from quite a height I decided that as one of the guides told me that I need to run and jump on slippery rocks this was not going to happen and I would take the small jump - getting wimpy in my old age. However, I did do the slide down into another pool so maybe not so scaredy cat as I think - well that is my excuse and of course another year older!
When I get back I tell Mike all about the waterfall and I think he is getting a bit annoyed with me as I said so many times that it was so good and cooling.
We are off early again in the morning to Merida which is another little town and it is a long day of travel. We will have a stop off at Campeche so that should be nice.
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