Palenque of Ruins to See

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I'm not going to go into too much detail here because, as you can see from the title, I visited more ruins and there's not much I can say which I haven't already.



The ruins at Palenque (Palen-kay) are unique due to their artwork and carvings. Their location, situated on the side of a mountain also seems to be unique. The jungle scenery surrounding the former Mayan city was just as impressive as the structures, with some beautiful trees around 30M high. Coupled together with the former Mayan city this made for a very eerie atmosphere. Whilst walking around the central palace area, which seemed like a maze of different rooms and courtyards I managed to get lost. I'm not joking, it took me around ten minutes of walking down different passageways and ending up in the same place before I finally managed to find the exit!



In the hotel I finally came across some other backpackers. Low season is really low here. We decided after dinner to head into the small town and find a bar. We did a full lap of the town, everything was mostly closed except for a few restaurants. We'd just about given up when I noticed what seemed to be a bar upstairs across the road.



On the way in the other guys were joking about it probably being a strip club or a brothel. We walked in, ordered “tres cerveza por favor” and sat down. After about 15 minutes a girl who'd been sat on the table behind us, we presumed with her boyfriend, got up and came over to my mate. She got really close and looked him up and down before heading to the bar. This is when our suspicions really began. As she walked away I joked “I think she wants you”. Next thing she walks back over and starts to play with his hair!. Still naively believing that this local woman was just interested in the guy we thought nothing more of it.



While this was happening the other guy had gone to the toilet and been told he wasn't allowed in “the area”. After a few moments of looking around the bar I began to think the setting was a bit odd. Situated around the room were woman sat talking to each other with no drinks and looking kind of morbid, and groups of men sat around having a laugh and a beer. It soon became apparent that we were either sat in a brothel or a bar which tolerated prostitution!.

We had a few more beers and turned down some further offers for additional services, paid the remarkably low bill and headed back to the hostel.

When I noticed the outside appearance again I genuinely don't know how we didn't realise how seedy it was. I guess our thirst for beer outweighed out vigilance.



The following day I booked a bus ticket to Mexico City, a 15 hour journey which I was not looking forward to!

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