Day 7 Palenque

---

Wed 10th Dec '08

We had an early breakfast of gallo pinto (rice & beans) at the hotel at then we packed our stuff. We took a taxi to the ADO bus station & we bought the tickets for our 7 hr trip to Palenque. I found the roads & infrastructure in Mexico to be excellent. We saw a lot of peasant type houses but a lot of well built houses too. Every house seemed to have hamacas, tv & small Virgin Mary shrine lit with Christmas lights or candles.

Everyday 5kms or so we saw individual & relay joggers carrying burning torches with support pick up trucks on the roads. It was an impressive demonstration of faith jogging for miles in 28 degree heat. They were running a pilgrimage for the 12th Dec Festival which culminates Guadeluope Cathedral in San Cristobal de las Casas. The road hugged the Carribean coast before swinging south through the lowlands of Chiapas. Christina & my packs were searched at a military roadblock en route. The authorities are still a little edgy after the 1994 Zapatista rebellion that erupted here in Chiapas state.

We arrived at he Hotel Kashlan at 6pm. It seemed to rain the whole time we were in Palenque. The town is dull & it was livened up by the various groups of jogging pilgrims. The Mexicans like their fireworks & religion & I did too. It's only claim to fame is its proximity to the Mayan
ruins.

---

Photos

Jogging Pilgrim
These guys are fit jogging in this heat with no shelter from the sun

Palenque
The climate changed as we reached Palenque it rained most of the time we were there.