Blogs from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, North America - page 18

Our last Mexican stop off was in Palenque which was not as nice as the previous towns, although our view may have been tainted by the fact that the weather had turned to rain. On the way into town we had seen vans adorned with religious images with people running alongside them on a pilgrimage to the Basilica of Guadalupe. When we got there the pilgrims were sleeping rough around the main square. To make sure we took in our quota of Mayan ruins we went to visit the Palenque temples. These were in a much more 'jungle-like' setting with howler monkeys making a racket in the trees. We were lucky enough to see one as they can be heard from very far away and are often deep in the jungle.... read more

Well we arrived in Pelenque yesterday evening, but we spent about a whole 5 minutes at the bus station there. As it turned out we headed out of town to this jungle area where there are cheap cabanas and food. Found a little hut thing with three beds for 50 pesos a night, works out great because I have a snore zone downstairs and Jord/Ry have the upstairs. Jord lost his sleeping bag cover, hes down two items already, I dont know why Im bringing this up but Im hoping people will laugh at him because I did already. At least his pack is getting lighter. Ryan shaved his moustache as well, really dissapointing. So were sitting on our little patio last night when Mike the English guy strolls up, said he knew hed find us ... read more

Well, thanks for the support all of you who commented on my blog. Glad to know the last one was such a hit, not sure that this one will compete, but at least you´ll know what´s going on with me. I see that there has been a request to add photos, I will attempt to bring some up from snapfish, or maybe, if I can find an internet cafe with a usb port (sometimes supprisingly hard to find), then I will bring some up right off my camera. As it is I need to upload them before cuba, cuz I´m running out of space. So, where to begin. I said goodbye to my family, they were so nice, they gave me a present! how sweet, I only stayed with them for two weeks. Chiapas was nice, ... read more

Friday 10th June 2005 : Palenque Ruins After an unsettled night we had a reasonable breakfast. The camp site is the closest to the ruins. Even so it turned into a walk of around 2K to the main entrance. There are many buildings on the site which appears oddly landscaped, a little like English parkland. We climbed up and down quite a few of them but I was not as impressed as I had been by the Inca sites we had visited. Perhaps because many of the buildings were stucco-faced which is now faded, crumbling and dirty they do not have the impact of their original bold colourings of red, blue and yellow. Even so, we still spent a good two and a half hours looking around. We spent the rest of the day lazing around ... read more

Over the course of history these Mayan ruins have been lost and found several times. In 1773 Father Ordenez Aguilar led an expedition to the ruins and wrote a book about. In 1782 Captain Antonio del Rio explored Palenque, his report was filed away in Guatemalan archives until 1822. An English translation was made and a number of expeditions were made. In his sixties Count de Waldeck lived in one of the pyramids for two years, and wrote highly exaggerated reports of his findings. Now bus loads of tourists file into the entrance of Palenque everyday. Still the magic of the place has not been lost. Because of the size, it's possible to avoid the other tourists. The buildings set in the jungle have a sense of mystery and sadness. It's sad that so much of ... read more