Palenque

Welcome to the jungle ... mexican style at least.

It is safe to say that this portion of our trip is the one which got the most mixed reviews from the two of us. I think its fair to say that Mie is not a jungle person.

On the bus, we chatted up an australian girl - Coleen. When we arrived, we got into a taxi and off we were to El Panchán - a jungle surrounded site, where many different hostels have their base. After some initial confusion, too pricy or booked hostels, we ended up at a place called El Jaguar.

We got a brick double, while Coleen got a wooden cabaña - which we later found tp be the home for many of Palenques scorpions. The kitchen was staffed with an american couple, Joe and Nea - who left usa, hitchhiked down to Palenque and wants to join a indigenous tribe in south america. Joe makes a good spicy breakfast, sells mushrooms and pitts scorpions against tarantellas in his spare time. Interesting kind of guy, one can never be entirely sure if he is on to something or just plain mad.

We went on our own to the Palenque ruins on a collectivo, which are basically VW transporters driving up and down the road picking up people for cheap transport. The initial impression was disappointing, as it was pure tourist trap with crap vendors everywhere. We found however a secluded magical place, still semicovered with plantlife - incredibly intense feel about the place.

As far as tour-guides go, I have them down to the Knowers, Showers, Talkers, the blatantly Incompetent and the Hustlers.

The Knowers are intimate with their places and are willing to take you on a more secluded journey based on personal knowledge - Alfonzo was that kind of guy, easy and personal. The Showers know their stuff, and they will show and tell whats neccessary for a satisfactory tour. It´s a job, but a job well done and most guys doing that are relaxed with a big degree of personal interest in what they are showing. The Talkers are most of the prof guys at the big tourist ruins. It´s close to a in-and-job, with dutifull explanation of the basics to the gringos, stops at the selling points and little to none personality. The blatantly Incompentent are a wildcard category, where just just unluckily draw a looney with weird social interaction skills, pulling facts out of their asses, where you are never entirely sure why and what they are talking about.

Last but not least, the Hustlers. They perfect the art of stoving people into busses, keeping everyone completely in the dark until the very last moment, constantly calculating money, carrying no conversation beyond the utmost necessary: baños, breakfast, 2 hours, boat. The Hustler just dont give a fuck about you and you know it. Keeping a jovial attitude of a sheep hearder, he spends his time talking with other herders on the road, while arranging shamelessly inbred scams and deals with vendors, restaurants and other stuff all designed to squeeze the very last peso from your scared, confused and sweaty self. It´s the perfection of get-in and get-the-hell-out "guiding". Yes friends... such a Hustler was Jose, our guide to Yaxchillán.

Yaxchillan itself was pretty nice, ruins in a nice jungle setting, more howling monkeys and extreme humidity. We spend our evenings trying to figure out the mazes of Panchán and getting to the pool. The pool turned out to be dry, so we went up the hill to a fancier resort, and got our swim on there.

After a enjoyable stay in the jungle (for some of us), we were told to go to Chetumal, in order to avoid the hurricane. As we took off, we thought everything was safe... but it wasn´t ..

Next: Hurricane Survivors!

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