Blogs from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, North America - page 12

Forget your outdated gods, all your ephemeral gods! The powerful Lord, Creator of Heaven and Earth, exists. (part of the prophecy of Natzin Yabun Chan) This is exactly how it feels here in the mid of jungle by just looking on the undescribable sky in the mid of night and listening to the screams of the monkeys. There are only couple of words that describes this experince and that is that GOD exists. The creator the one thruth, with footprints of creation every where. Though we have to look for it in order to see it. Here in Palenque (PanChal, in the of jungle cabanas) every moment has a surprise in it if we start not to expect anything. If you get here, stay in Cabanas and don´t forget sky watching (just a consideration) and open ... read more

The town of Palenque is not historical and not particularly pretty but we found it lively with lots of restaurants and shops and internet. We could have stayed on the road out to the ruin but didn't want to feel isolated out there and pay over the odds for a cabaña like our Tulum experience. However, in retrospect we also shouldn't have stayed at the Posada Kushul-Ha either. It was cheap at P$200 (US$19) a night but not that clean and we think they had bed bugs. There were lots of tour agencies so we picked one for our trip to Yaxchilan and Bonampak. It was P$600 (US$57) each for the day including 2 meals. We could have done it ourselves but it would have been much harder and almost as expensive and we may have ... read more

An early start to the Mayan ruins of Palenque. They're surrounded by jungle and lots of mozzies. It was amazing seeing these structures rise from the trees and we were also allowed to walk through some of them. Unfortunately they closed tourist access to the main one because the humidity inside the tomb from human sweat was eroding the interior. The atistry in the carvings was beautiful. We went on a jungle walk after the pyramid tour and I'm feeling it now. Hopefully all this heat and exercise will help me lose the kgs I've gained since I left Sydney. That, and maybe less eating :)... read more

Okay, another update for you guys (I keep hoping anyone´s reading this...) Last time I blogged we were still in Mérida - we have moved a lot since then. On the morning of the fourth we got on another ADO-bus for quite a long haul - to Palenque. On the way we met quite a nice dutch guy who seems to have almost the same itinerary as we do - only he´s doing it on his own. There are a lot of lone travellers here - I´m quite impressed with that, actually; I wouldn´t dare to tour around on my own, especially with only rudimentary spanish language-skills. Anyways - after a full day on the bus we finally got to the nature reserve of Palenque, which is situated in the beautiful jungle of Chiapas. The wildlife ... read more

For our first full day in Palenque we booked a tour to visit the ruins of this ancient maya city. In the summer months, an estimated 6,000 - 7,000 people visit the ruins on a daily basis. Hundreds of ruined buildings are spread over 15 sq. km, but only a fairly compact central area has been excavated. It is another impression ruin even more so because everything was built without metal tools, pack animals or the wheel. We had approx. 3 1/2 hours to walk through this impressive archaeological site. It may seem like a lot of time to visit ruins, but we could nave easily spent more time there. Ancient Palenque stands at the precise point where the first hills rise out of the Gulf Coast plain. The name Palenque (Palisade) is Spanish and has ... read more