We set the alarm for 6:30 AM, but ended up getting up after 7 because it sounded like it was raining and we were still sort of sleepy. Juan went to get more water and said it wasn't raining, that it was just the leaves dropping water on the roof. We ate some granola bars and went in a collectivo bus to the ruins. We were happy we got there early since there weren't many people around yet. We got a guide named Pablo and he explained everything in minute detail. I liked Palenque the best of all the ruins we've seen because the jungle setting is dramatic plus we got to walk up, in, and around the buildings in the ruins. It wasn't too hot, but after awhile it got really humid. We took a lot of pictures. We got pictures of a sarcophagus, stone beds, and a stone toilet too.
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| Palenque ruins. So cool with the mist in the jungle. |
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| The skull on the front of the Skull Palace. |
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| Overlooking the Palenque ruins. |
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| The sarcophagus of a king inside the tunnels in the Palenque ruins. |
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| The Palenque Ruins. |
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| Palenque Ruins. |
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| We're sitting underneath the carving of the king and his wife dancing. She is holding a snake, which symbolizes fertility. |
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| Overlooking the Palenque ruins. |
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| In front of one of the false arches. They are false arches since they are not rounded. They had this type of architecture in all of the Mayan ruins we saw. |
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| Our guide told us that these were portraits before, but the faces were stolen by explorers. They might have had gold on them. The explorers also carved their names into the stone around this area. Ancient graffiti to say, "I was here!" |
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| These were stone carvings of prisoners of war. Most have their hands on their chests, a sign of submission. |
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| Juan pretending to use the stone toilet. You could see underneath where the water would run through. |
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| Palenque ruins. |
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| Juan's in front of a stone Mayan bed. |
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| In front of an acueduct. |
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| Beautiful Palenque panorama. |
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| More Palenque panorama. |
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| Palenque ruins. You can see some stones piled on the top of the building. This was to extend the roof up further. They thought it made the buildings look more regal and important. |
After the Palenque ruins, Pablo took us into the jungle. We saw some Saraguato (or Aulladores) monkeys. They were really high up in the trees but they made a lot of noise, sort of like a barking dog. I felt like we were on a Universal City tour and the noise was an impending surprise. We walked all around and I was thoroughly exhausted at the end, but we still looked around the shops outside the entrance and I got a few things.
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| Into the jungle near Palenque. Look at the size of this tree!!! Our guide said it would fall soon because the termites were working on it. |
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| Check out the spines on this tree in the jungle!!! |
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| Can you see the saraguato monkey in the middle of this picture??? Juan said he could only see the monkey's white balls. He's sort of right. |
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| A white spider just outside of the jungle. |
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| A funky looking bug just outside of the jungle. |
We got a collectivo back to El Panchan and ate at Don Mucho's again. We changed our plans to go to San Cristobal instead of Villahermosa afer hearing such bad things about it. One guide in the jungle called it the city of dos mentiras (two lies) because there's no villa and it's not hermosa (beautiful). The collectivo driver had said you could get robbed easily there. After looking into San Cristobal, we realized we wouldn't have much time there and it would be a 17 - 18 hour trip back to Cancun. So we ended up deciding just to go back to Cancun a day early since we were exhausted. That way we could have a day to rest.
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