Palenque

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Hola,
We didnt do much in campeche except eat breakfast on the rooftop and watch street vendors setting up before heading to the bus station. The bus to Palenque took a while, but we had movies (dubbed in spanish) to keep us occupied, e.g. Star Trek and confessions of a shopaholic. There were gappers on the bus, 4 of which were aussies which we bumped into over the next few days as well. Had a chat and they-re on a 27 day trip with gap adventures.
Finally we got to palenque and grabbed a colectivo that heads towards the ruinas of palenque (ruins) but got dropped off at a place called El Panchan, a family run area of the jungle with cabanas, dorms etc run by different members of the family so you can choose your comfort zone. We chose cheap... which meant 80 pesos for a cabana for both of us!!! its the cheapest accomodation yet! But being so cheap did not include food or internet, so we had to pay for food at el panchan which was pretty good, aleit a but more expensive than we were used to.
The major problem that night was that our cabana was about 50m from 2 restaurant areas, one closed at midnight, the other was open all hours. But this in itself wasnt a problem... there are about 15 ´hippies´ who are asleep most of the day and get completely wasted every evening, listen to loud reggae and play huge loud drums and start trible type yelling till the early hours!!! we were not impressed, we could hardly sleep until around 3am when they decided it was time for them to sleep. But at around 7am the howler monkeys that live in the jungle, wake up and true to their name start to howl... but it sounds more like a giant lion roaring form these small black monkeys. so we were a bit tired and irritable next morning. But we got on with it and headed to the Ruinas, which were totally worth it! one of the best so far! beautiful hillside jungle setting and the place where the first and most impressive mayan tomb has been found. We saw it and the jewellary found within it at the museum that was included in our entry... small but worth a look. Huge stucco masks that were uncovered are on display giving lifelike images from a thousand years ago of what a mayan preist or monarch looked like! very cool!
Walking around the ruins we found a secluded are that not many people passed through, near the exit. It was like a scene from indiana jones or something. Very cool, moss covered stones, including a few stairways within doorways and lots of delapidated walls that had giant stangler figs growing over the top with their lengthy twisted roots. SO COOL!
Ill add photos later, sorry! lots of these computers are too slow to bother with trying.
After the ruins we headed into the town of palenque for some lunch (tacos) and a look around. We tried on some shoes, but unfortunately Dario´s feet were too big haha. And we didnt have enough money on us anyway (even though a pair of pumas (fakes obviously) were less than $20AU. We bought stuff for the next days breaky and lunch (so much cheaper this way) and also booked a tour for the following day that took us to 2 of the great waterfalls on the way to san cristobal and then onto san cristobal city in the mountains.
Same thing happened that night with lots of annoyingly loud yelling and music, but this time it went until 4.30am! plus the cabana next door (which shares the roof) and a loud american guy and spanish girl who were lets say just loud all night!
The tour picked us up at 9.30am (supposedly 9am) and we headed off with 4 french people to a waterfall called Misol Ha, very tall and pretty. Then we drove to Aqua Azul, the water is actually blue (thats what aqua azul means) and we got to go swimming here, though it was pretty cold. We walked about 30 mins up the river and its just waterfall after waterfall, so pretty! along the river there are artisan stalls (i bought a great top!) and lots of food stalls, including where you can buy a coconut and put rum in it.
We left there and had an annoyingly long time waiting for the bus to take us to san cristo, becuase we had to change buses and there had been a landslide down the mountain road which we drove past earlier in our minivan but bug buses had trouble passing it. eventually it came and off we went, 2 hours later than planned. San cristobal is very cold! and ill tell you more next entry! xx

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