Day 6 - Welcome to the jungle Part II

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Next thing I know it was 7am and I needed a wee. I couldn’t use the toilet, however, because there was a tree in the bathroom. Oh, so that crash at 3am, which we brushed off as the wind, was actually a tree falling through our roof.

Everyone does the waterfalls, Misol Ha and Agua Azul, when they come to Palenque. Our advice: only go if you have nothing else to do, if you’ve never seen a decent waterfall, or if you can guarantee the “blue” waters of Agua “Azul” will actually be blue. At this time of year, the occasional thunder storm washes things into the rivers e.g. roads. On the hour and a half journey to the waterfalls, our bus driver had to avoid a few places where the road had been washed away down the sides of the mountains.

On our bus were a large group of Israelis who’d all met each other in Playa Del Carman. Israeli travellers are very interesting. They have all just come out compulsory military service and tend to be very cliquey. There are other reasons for this too. For starters, Judaism, the religion, and Hebrew, the language, are inherently cliquey and they have large support networks that reach in to many countries. There is also the Israeli-Palestine debate. So many times, I’ve seen some liberal-minded backpacker ‘av a go after a few beers. Nearly always, neither side offers any sort of balanced argument, or sympathy for the other, and it ends up with someone getting upset. Anyway, that’s why you often see a lot of Israelis travelling together and these guys were all really nice. One girl, in a white t-shirt was particularly nice. This white t-shirt inevitably got wet at the first waterfall, Misol Ha, and I inevitably looked. After five nights of frustration sleeping next to Ian, it was all I could think about for the hour trip up to Agua Azul.

After appreciating the full force of Agua Azul for half an hour and taking THAT PHOTO, we were ready to leave. But we couldn’t because half the people on the bus were waiting for another bus and we had to wait another 3 hours before we could go back to Palenque, smash some Melatonin, Dramamine and some beers, then catch the 12 hour bus to Tulum.

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