Monday, August 15, 2011

PALENQUE


Palenque is about 2 hours drive from Villahermosa in the Chiapas district. The town itself is not much, basing its existence on its proximity to a beautiful archeologial Mayan site.

We got into Palenque town, picked up ticket for the late night ADO primera classe bus to Merida, left our back packs in storage at an exhorbitant price of some $0.50 per bag per hour which meant we had to shell out some $15 later that night, and headed out to the ruins. A park forest entry of 25 pesos per person and another entry fee of 52 pesos per person for the ruins themselves was unexpectly low for a site of such importance. The best part was that Yannick did not have to pay an entry at all.

Not connected to Palenque in any way but I really like the fact that in Mexico the first class buses charge kids half price. This really makes a diference to families, and because of this you see a lot of families on these buses.

Anyway, back to our main story. The Palenque ruins are set in a beautiful, thick, green jungle. The setting makes the experience the best I have had while visiting ruins. Add to that is the fact that the ruins are actually in pretty good shape, and they allowed us to climb up and even into some of the templos. For me personally, Palenque has been the most impressive ruinas we have visitied so far. Much more impressive than the Mayan ruins in Copan, or Tulum, and as ruins go, far more impresive than Machu Pichu. Having said that, the setting for Machu Pichu is hard to beat, and it is the location that makes Machu Pichu a wonder of the world. I know a bunch of people who would jump at me right now and ask about the spirituality of the place. I admit that too is a huge factor in Machu Pichu.

As we entered the complex , we were suddenly faced by a huge complex of temples. The temple of insciptions, the huge palacio and the temple where the red queen was found or the Tumba de la roja reina. We could actually enter the tomb, which is nice, because its only then that you get a real feel of the compplexity of the pyramid. This particular pyramid is in pristine condition and therefore more impressive than the ones where you need your imagination to really understand the structure. Being built with no machanisation of any sort or even the wheel is impressive. Walking around the Palacio where King Pakal and his ancestors lived is quite an experience. Interesting stucco tells you stories and so imagining the Mayan royalty stay here is easy.

We climbed the tall structures and even though the pyramids and temples in Tulum are much larger, these were more interesting for me. Some of the temples we really wanted to visit were shut to visitors but even then, walking around the jungle that was still overgrown and experiecning the ruins within these jungles was quite exhilarating. The setting and the light tickling through the huge Cieba trees was magical, and felt right out of a fantasy film. Tulum is where Luke skywalker opens the Star Wars and Palenque is where you'd expect stange medievial creatures to emerge from the forest.

Waking around the park we encountered the small but beautiful waterfall that continues to become the Bano de la Reina, or the bath of the queen. This is a set of small crystal clear pools created as the water flows down from the waterfall. The pools are a miniature version of Semuc Champey in Guatemala. The water fall isself is beautiful as the rocks behind the water form a wonderful picture with caves and little pillars cut into the rock face.

Three and half hours later, we were done with the ruins and headed back to palenque town in a collectivo. We hung around, ate tacos, I drank some beers, we hung out at a local music session at the main square and passed the next 6 hours until it was time for our bus to Merida. While we waited, I ate the best Torta of my trip so far. A torta is a mexican sandwich, made with a hard crusted bread with the insides dug out and filled with an assortment of meat, chopped onions, tomatoes, a local cheese, and chillis. I chose the Longinizas and it was a good choice.

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