Blogs from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico, North America - page 6

We slowly descended the mountains into the hot and humid lowlands, our 6 hour bus trip took in some magical scenery before arriving at our destination, the ruins of Palenque. This is one of the grand archaeological sites of Mexico, the ancient Mayan city is set amongst thick forest mountains and the jungle certainly adds to the mysterious feel of the ruins. We based ourselves in the La Canada area, 5 miles from the ruins, at a pretty decent place called Hotel Chablis (550 MXN). The air conditioning was a life saver as the humidity was very draining! We easily flagged down a collectivo (local minibus) going to the ruins (10 pesos each) and spent most of a day exploring the temples, palace and museum. This magnificent city dates back to early 300 BC and much ... read more

We arrived in Palenque yesterday. Coming out of the bus station we were confronted by a large billboard across the road declaring our hostel to be 10 minutes walk this way. Not wanting to drag our bags we hopped in a taxi. We soon found our hostel at the bottom of 'Hostel Street'. Bizarrely here in Palenque none of the hostels are situated in the actual town but in a seperate traveller's world where hostels and their attached cafes and restaurants line a road surrounded by jungle plants and replica stone statues of Mayan gods and monsters to give it that authentic look! We went into the hostel, walking down a corridor rather like a cave, that smelled remarkably like Colchester Zoo to my mind. We were escorted to our room and for once splurging on ... read more

Palenque When we felt we had recovered sufficiently, we set off for Palenque, a town within the jungle of Chiapas, that while pretty nondescript as a town, has some pretty amazing sights in its vicinity. We stayed at a place called El Panchan, which is about 4km out of town. It is a slightly chaotic melee of cabins set in reforested jungle (that was farmland not long ago), with a stream winding its way through the site, and a couple of outdoor restaurant/bars. There is also apparently a Mayan steam bath here, but we didn´t go looking for this, or see it. The cabins ranged from four wooden walls and a roof, to fairly nice mini-homes with en-suite bathrooms. Ours was somewhere in the middle. It didn´t have physical windows to block the window shape holes, ... read more

Ok. So to elaborate on the past couple weeks. I left the bakery and lived at casa argentina without obligations for a few days. I filled them by climbing the 3,700 something volcano that lurks over the city. This guy named Lance and I took the last bus to Llona de Pinal, the little pueblo at the base of the cone, just a bombed out looking swatch of cinderblock buildings to be brutally honest, and from there we hiked up to the trail. when we reached the sign for the volcano we hiked off the switchbacks a hundred meters or so and hunkered down by a fallen tree just as the sun fell below the horizon. After a dinner of some tortillas and beans and eggs and cheeze, courtesy of the flores market, we realized that ... read more

San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, a 22 de octubre del 2009. Muchos saludes a todos. Siguiendo con mi gira artística y tras estar 4 noches en Palenque, el domingo pasado habìa decidido visitar la ciudad de Comitán, en la zona montañosa del Estado; pero como el único autobús directo de Palenque hacia allá salía a las 9:30 hrs (demasiado temprano para mí: me niego a madrugar) y costaba 210 pesos, decidí transportarme en camionetas (colectivos) haciendo la ruta Palenque-Ocosingo-Cd. Altamirano-Comitán (me dolìa màs la madrugada que el gasto). La única incidencia en el recorrido fue un "pequeño" deslave a medio camino entre Palenque y Ocosingo, ya que estuvo lloviendo toda la noche, y al medio dìa obstruyó por completo el paso en ambos sentidos (en la mañana sì habìa paso, segùn el chofer). La fila ... read more