The road to ruin

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Mexico is a country that conjures up lots of associated imagery from brightly dressed Mexican’s sporting vast sombreros to its famous cuisine including tacos, enchiladas, burritos and quesadillas. This imagery brought with it the expectation that when we crossed from Guatemala into Mexico we would likely experience the same clear material wealth difference as Nicaragua to Costa Rica. However, it was not so and instead we could barely notice the join apart from a bit of a step up in transport comfort. The border was very low key and almost completely unmemorable apart from the slight shock that we needed to pay a fifty dollar immigration fee before we depart when most countries before had charged nothing.

Our first stop was Palenque where we hoped we would finally open our Mayan ruins account. We elected to stay in the out of town option of El Panchan as it had been given a good billing for its cheap jungle cabins and was only a few kilometres short of the Palenque ruins. Apparently Palenque is a bit of a hot spot for mystical vibes and consequently has become a bit of a draw for the hippie crew as well as those who just wanting to have a peek at the ruins. The result was El Panchan was a cross between Butlins and a hippie commune. It was a peculiar place with its blend of backpackers, people on holiday and the bongo bashing deadlocked ones. That said the jungle cabins were just the job for some alternative budget accommodation and the host of onsite eating options also fitted the bill.

Our main mission for visiting the Mayan ruins was accomplished. As it was our first exposure to these ancient cities there was a particularly high impact from seeing Palenque’s mega temples and surrounding buildings. To comprehend that they’d built these structures comprised largely of carefully cut chunks of limestone without the wheel, metal tools or pack animals was hugely impressive. The experience was further enhanced by its jungle setting with the sound of howler monkeys frequently to be heard from the high canopy that surrounded the relatively compact excavated site of what was formally a city of over fifteen square kilometres. According to the site museum Palenque gradually declined and ceased to exist as a functioning city from around 850AD with over population and resource exhaustion leading to its demise (no lessons to be learnt there then).

After two nights in our jungle Butlins we depart bound for the over 2100m above sea level city of San Cristobal de las Casas and its apparently vibrant cultural scene.

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