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After one night in the Hilton, we were ready to get dirty again, and we hit the highway to a most amazing Mayan ruin in southern Mexico, Palenque. From the advice of other travelers, we knew we wanted to stay in a hippie-run village just outside the ruins called Panachen. This is a small community in the jungle with about 4 different hostel/hotels and a central restaurant/bar that features fire dancers every night! (Well, every night except Tuesday, which is the first night we were there!) The food at the restaurant was reasonable and delicious, and the people we met were fascinating. Our first dinner we ended up at a table next to a group of 15 pilots that were on a 3 week flying tour of Central America! They got together every year and took the time to fly their own small planes to some remote jungle and beach treasures. I think we were about one tequila shot away from convincing one of them to give us a lift back to Belize the following day, but their tour guide pulled them all back to the bus before we secured the deal.
That night, my cough was incredibly intense and I was afraid I was keeping Angela awake listening to me hack and cough to near puking. But Ms. Ang would never complain; only help --- she was making repeated runs to the dining hall for me, returning with hot tea and cups full of honey. What a sweetie! I was slow to start the next morning after the restless night, so we snuggled in our double bed and watched the videos on my iPod….the only videos I had were a series of music videos from Beck’s The Information album from which we concluded Beck is very …. Artsy!
That afternoon we walked to the main road and hitched a bus ride up the hill to the ruin site of Palenque. The structures were massive and plentiful, with wide steps and majestic views of the surrounding lowlands. The carvings of Palenque are incredibly detailed and different than most others in the Mayan world – we overheard a tour guide saying that it is thought that there is an Asian and Egyptian influence in both the architecture and art of this site! Sure enough there were carvings of gods sitting Buddha style and ancient crypt entrances, those of which I’ve never seen in a Mayan pyramid before! Of course, we spent some time practicing poi from the tops of each of the pyramids, and as the sun started to set, the roar of nearby howler monkeys could be heard all around us!
As night descended my cough and all over crappy feeling returned. I ate a small dinner and then retired to our room for reading and resting. Angela woke me up at 10pm to go to the dining hall for the fire dancing performance and I’m SO glad she did. WOW! Although we were disappointed they wouldn’t share their gasoline or stage with us, their talent and showmanship was extraordinary! There were about five performers rotating onto the stage, with the most exciting girl doing somersaults with her fire poi in hand! All right, a new move to master!!
The next morning we had a 6am bus to the Guatemala/Mexico border to begin our 9 hour journey to Flores, Guatemala. At the border, we were surprised to find the crossing to be a 45 minute boat ride down a river in the rain! When we got to the Guatemala side, we scrambled up a muddy hill and found only a small snack store with bathrooms and two empty minivans. No border patrol and no bus drivers….only a gang of us tourists all wandering around asking each other, what next? Finally after an hour of snacks, questions, and bathroom breaks, a man appears out of nowhere and announces his minivan is continuing to Flores! All aboard!

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