Blogs from El Panchan, Chiapas, Mexico, North America

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 ... read more

I tried to concentrate and look out the windows of the bus as not to technicolour yawn all over Orianne, it wasn't easy where has my cast iron stomach gone??? It was so beautiful looking over the cliffs into the jungle and driving through the clouds. It seemed like someone had played with the contrast buttonon the tele as everything was looking this bright , brilliant green colour. The feeling was even more relaxing,say it isnt so. Wet, wet , wet!!! No not a band of a bygone era singing love is all around but of course the weather. When it wasnt raining it was extremely humid. Remember the deafening sound of rain on an old tin roof, nice reminded me of home. Our wet clothes wouldnt dry and all our books went floppy and curling ... read more

After San Cristobal, I headed off to Palenque, to see one of Mexico's most impressive ruins. I didn't actually stay in Palenque (the city) because the town itself is not very nice. I stayed in the El Pachan jungle which is closer to the ruins. My cabin was literally in the middle of the jungle. Very cool. They cleared off walkways and such, so it's not like I needed a machete to make my way to the road. There was even a restaurant close to my cabin which served pretty good food. You could hear all sorts of creatures outside my window. Some nights I would hear something that would make a sort of "meeow" sound. Who knows what that could have been! I arrived at El Palchan on Monday evening, so I decided to spend ... read more

I´m in the jungle and I really am enjoying it. The bus ride from Campeche was quite uneventful ...5 hours actually but it was pleasing to see the landscape change from the chapparral of the Yucatan to the rolling hills and trees of Chiapas. It truly is beautiful and lush. Agricultural endeavors seem to be a prosperous . The cattle , goats ,and horses are fat and healthy. No chickens in sight though. Someone said that there are not a lot of them farmed around here.It seems they raise more turkeys in the area. I am staying at a place in the jungle instead of in the city this time and it is a pleasure to be away from the smell and noise of vehicles. Mind you last night ,as every night , 3 young people ... read more

Have spent the last 5 days or so travelling with a nice German girl called Katharina. Instead of getting the bus directly from San Cristóbal to see some more ruins in Palenque (pal-en-kay), we took a tourist mini-bus which stopped at a few interesting sites on the way to break up the journey. First stop was Agua Azul, which literally means ´blue water´. However, being the rainy season at the moment, the water was a kind of mucky brown colour. Nevermind, it was still pretty! Then another waterfall called Misol-Ha where you could walk behind the waterfall. Fun, but a bit wet! Then finally to the ruins at Palenque. These ruins are particularly beautiful because they are set in a jungle and look all mystical and romantic. Unfortuately, some of the beauty was lost on me ... read more

Ok, so we are very quickly falling behind with our blogs, and forgetting everything...going back to last week, and after spending a week at the beach doing nothing but slob, we headed to Palenque, to see what the jungle had to offer, and in terms of ruins, bugs, and rain, we were not let down! We stayed outside of Palenque in a place called El Panchan. After a hair raising bus journey that arrived much earlier than expected (no speed limiters, but a very heavy brick!) we arrived at our jungle hut reception at 6am, greeted in the dark by the biggest frogs ever and not a lot else, not that we went looking. We sat around for a couple of hours, eagerly awaiting sun up and the arrival of staff. The jungle lived up to ... read more