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Published: December 1st 2008
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Palenque
town of Palenque Today was another long driving day, destination San Cristobal. We were ready for breakfast at around 07:00, but as usual, it took forever for the food to arrive. By this time I’ve decided that Mexicans like their food salty!
There was a line of tour buses when we got to the Palenque ruins, apparently because it’s the start of the peak season. Many structures were still not excavated in the ruin complex but what’s different about this ruin is that some of the original artefacts remain in situ, for example, the sarcophagus and the mural in the foliated temple. Salvador was our guide. Again I don’t remember much other than the Mayan calendar. King Pakal lived to 80 years old and died in 683 AD, quite unheard of in those days. I wondered how he got up those steep steps in his old age?
The first set of 4 buildings as we came in was the Las Inscripciones Group. The last in line is Templo de las Inscripciones and has Paka’s tomb. His skeletal remains and jade mask were moved to a museum in Mexico City but the giant sarcophagus lid remains. El Palacio (The Palace) has a tower,
an observatory that was re-built in 1955. It also has some stone beds where the royals slept. The Las Cruces Group was dedicated to Pakal’s son, Kan Balam. It has templo de la Cruz Foliada which you can climb, the largest of the 3 to the north called templo de la Cruz, and templo de la Sol to the west. After the visit we took a trail that led to the museum. Along the way were additional structures yet to be uncovered and there was a small waterfall.
We then drove to Miso Ha, a spectacular waterfall with 35m drop. It was simply magnificent as we could walk behind it. More swimming and diving took place here without any injuries. Agua Azul was the next stop. We had to pay an extra fee to get pass a checkpoint set up by the Zapatistas (EZLN). They briefly took over San Cristobal on Jan 1 1994 and made a name for themselves to fight for indigenous rights. I thought about taking a picture but decided it was in my best interest not to. The US government considers the group communists; if you are interested you can read more about them online.
Agua Azul is a series of waterfall cascades with crystal clear turquoise blue colour, although when it rains it looks quite different with a chocolaty colour. It was much wider but nowhere near as high as Miso Ha. I waded in and sat in a shallow pool of flowing, refreshingly cold clear water. For lunch most of us had empanadas. They are dumpling with various fillings: chicken, beef, potatoes and cheese. They were cheap at 10 pesos for 5, but not particularly tasty in my opinion.
What followed was a long drive to San Cristobal de las Casas, including finding the answer to “why did the chicken cross the road”. As we went up in elevation, it was interesting to see a change in the flora, with places where both banana and pine trees co-existed. I rode shot gun in the front although I had to do some work to keep my seat. :-)
It was a little bit over 19:00 when we got to our hotel Museo Na Bolom, the 19th century colonial museum and former residence of Swiss anthropologist-photographer Trudy Budy-Blom, who fought to preserve the culture of indigenous people in Chiapas. It was a neat
Palenque
King Pakal's sarcophagus hotel, complete with a fireplace, but the downside is that it’s a bit far from the main plaza. Some of us walked to the main plaza and found a little restaurant with a selection of set menus, including a drink, soup, entrée and dessert for 50 pesos! It was good for the most part but my mushroom lasagne was certainly not anyone’s finest work.
We took a roundabout way to get back to the hotel, making a detour to see Santo Domingo church at night. It was quite pretty but had I been by myself I probably would not have done it. It felt like early spring temperature-wise so I graciously offered my toque and gloves, but everyone was tough. It’s not that surprisingly given that it’s at 2100m above sea level. We got back to a roaring fire thanks to my roommate. Today I learned a few German words, some nice, some not so nice!
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