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Published: March 21st 2009
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Tim Version:
* Saw the waterfalls of Misol-Ha, and swam and lay around beautiful Agua Azul.
* Visited the incredible ruins of Palenque, loving the jungle setting and angry sounding howler monkeys.
The ancient temple filled version:
The night bus to Palenque didn't play any movies and didn't let me get any sleep due to a driver with an itchy trigger finger for the bus lights (he would turn on all the lights in the bus so he could read his watch kinda stuff), constant stops, and some like the guy next to me snoring chronically!
Palenque is the name of both the town and the ruins, as is often the case. The town Palenque was just waking up when I arrived and I got perfect cheap steaming hot Tomales and Arroz con Leche, such a wicked way to start the day! I was hoping I could see everything in a day and leave on a night bus but that isn't possible! Well, actually I tell a lie... you can do it. But you miss out on some things, and get very little time at most places, so I wouldn't advise it. I couldn't find the
hostel I wanted so settled for another and by 9am was off on a tour of the waterfalls!
Travel advice here for the waterfalls and Agua Azul. Right now, at time of writing, there is a third place advertised called Agua Clara that I signed up to go to that is currently unavailable due to Zapatista problems. Do they tell you that when they sell the tour? No. Did I pay an extra 20 for it? Yes. Fuckers. So when the guy rocked up, I had a nice little argument in Spanish with him, with the guy pointing out "no refunds" written on the ticket, and me saying it was stupid and I want the extra $$$ back. I ended up failing and giving up, since he was twice my size and looking like he was just gonna leave me there... but man I wasn't happy. Their office - when you walk into town, take the right when the road forks. Follow it until you see on the left a big green youth hostel. On the other side of the road is the vendor. I WOULD NOT go with these guys. A name along the lines of "Hernandez Tours".
Shit service, lying in the ads, and just generally pricks. For a morning that started brilliantly, it slid downhill fast. Oh, and doyou need a tour? Well, yeh, kinda. It isn't guided, it's just transport, and its no more expencive and much much easier than to do it yourself it seems.
First stop - Misol-Ha! Just a short stop though. 30 minutes or so, just a place to view the waterfall from the outside, and inside a little cave you can view an internal one much smaller. Back on the bus, next stop is Agua Azul. Now this place is much more built up and touristy, but still very beautiful, with the sun coloured yellow limestone, smoothed and carved by the water, providing pool after pool of inviting water to swim in, with the colour holding a very strong blue colour much like at Semuc Champey in Guatemala. I stayed with the group a little bit, but then ventured up hill beyond the paths, and pushed my way through some scrub to find my own private small waterfall with pool at the bottom to chill out in. Magic =)
Back in Palenque town, a food festival was cranking
up, but so far it was just corn and the same sweets I'd seen throughout Guatemala so skipping that I went to bed. The town itself, really nothing to see I'm afriad. Lonely Planet's description is pretty dead on for this place!
The next day, the ruins! Pretty damn incredible I've got to say! Yet another different style to those I have seen elsewhere, they start almost as soon as you enter and spread in all directions, with the centre area cleared but some other less restored ones melding with nature, the jungle reclaming it's land. Many temples still have their internal carvings in intricate detail intact. The central temple also has a large well preserved top area with meeting areas, rooms, more larger carvings, various places of ritualistic significane, and all on top of the already rather high strcture. That I haven't seen at any other site. The constant source of noise, howler monkeys, also put on a very impressive sound show, with none of us catching sight of them, letting out sounds that would chill your soul and make you put on your running shoes if you didn't know what they were! There is then a musem
on the way out (When you leave the ruins, keep your ticket!! It is your entry to the Museum over the road!) that is small but clean and impressive, with some of the best write ups on history and culture of the site that I have seen at any site.
Back in Palenque with all done and the bland town all explored, I was happy to be heading onwards to San Cristobal on a night bus! The people of Palenque unfortunately I found way too atuned to tourists, with a smile and a conversation if you're buying something or a frown and a " you just wasted 2 minutes of my life" attitude once they realise you're not going to... but ah well, all good, and no to freezing cold San Cristobal!
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