We had been worried that, with all the rain, we may have driven all the way to Palenque for nothing. There's not much joy wallowing around an archelogical site knee deep in mud and not being able to climb pyramids made slippery and dangerous by rain.
But luckily the storm passed in the night, and the new day dawned bright and clear. The roads were dry (I love the tropics), Palenque was open for business, and we were psyched and set to go!
Palenque stands at the point where the first hills rise out of the Gulf Coast plain, and the area is covered with dense jungle. Had it not been raining so heavily, we might have heard howler monkeys from our little jungle room. Here was the view I encountered on my way back to the car the next morning.
As you can see, there's "No Traspassing" in this "Private Place". We really were in the jungle!
Less than $30 for the room and 5 minutes later, we were on site at Palenque. Again, we were among the first visitors to the site, which means a lot when tour groups swarm through in droves, and you're wanting to enjoy the mystique of the ruins and capture that "Indiana Jones" mood.
Palenque is breathtaking - the ruins are visually spectacular, with towers and pyramids, all set into the hillside and surrounded by lush jungle and waterfalls.
First pyramid climb: Templo de la Calavera, which you encounter as soon as you enter the site. This photos is looking towards El Palacio (The Palace) and its spectacular tower. Only problem with arriving early is that when you're looking east, as we are here, you have to shoot into the sun. Better photos looking west!
Indy, eat your heart out. Exploring the tunnels below El Palacio:
There was a photo shoot going on while we were there. I'm assuming it was for tourism, as the model was traditionally dressed. She would have been quite warm: it was a very steamy day.
In the shot below, we're standing on El Palacio looking at Templo de las Inscripciones (Temple of the Inscriptions). This is the tallest building at Palenque. Unfortunately, you're not allowed to climb it, but according to Lonely Planet, interior stairs lead down to the tomb of Pakal, whose jewel-bedecked skeleton and jade mosaic death mask now reside in Mexico City.
On the right is Templo de la Calavera.
Sean descending into yet another tunnel on top of El Palacio, with Templo de las Inscripciones in the background.
In one of the four main grassy courtyard areas of El Palacio, looking up at the tower.
You see those white pillars in the above photo? Each is a carving of a Mayan noble:
Tunnel view back to Templo de las Inscripciones from underneath El Palacio:
After exploring El Palachio, we crossed the river, dodging the many hawkers - thankfully they weren't too energetic in their soliciting, probably because of the warm weather. They were kind of languid. More like sleepy lizards than irritating flies.
However, just like at Chichen Itza, Palenque seemed to be overrun with jaguars. The scream of the wild cat continually echoed throughout the ruins........but it was just a whistle being sold at many of the illicit stalls, with repeated demonstrations being unleashed on unsuspecting tourists.
Across the river is Grupo de las Cruces (Group of the Crosses), three pyramid structures surrounding a plaza. From here, you get a great view back to El Palacio:
This is Templo del Sol (Temple of the Sun), on the west side of the Grupo de las Cruces plaza. It has the best-preserved roofcomb at Palenque:
Some well-preserved reliefs - I think this could be Pakal and his son Kan B'alam II. They seemed to be quite the rage among the Palenque artwork.
We then climbed Templo de la Cruz (Temple of the Cross), the largest of the group. I love how green it is at Palenque!
Here I am looking back towards the Templo del Sol:
It's a long way down! But such an amazing view.
See? We were really there!
We then decided to get amongst some of the jungle action. We left Grupo de las Cruces and headed into the greenery left of Templo de las Inscripciones in the above left.
We found a gorgeous lizard:
We saw the small Templo del Jaguar amongst the jungle:
According to our map, if you pressed on further, there were more structures, but our path petered out. In fact, Palenque consists of hundreds of ruined buildings spread over 15 square kilometres, of which only a small, central area has been excavated.
Man, that jungle was GREEN!!!
Sean heard some non-birdlike noises and tracked them to a monkey in a faraway tree, but I didn't get to see it.
We emerged from the jungle and headed down river, along the banks of the Arroyo Otolum, to the series of waterfalls. As we were heading down the wooden stairs, I spied a bright blue dragonfly!
The waterfalls were so beautiful:
This is part of the Grupo de los Murcielagos - mainly small residential complexes. Imagine living right by this beautiful river! Lucky Mayans!
Here I am on the suspension bridge. It was very bouncey! The water behind me is crystal clear.
We couldn't get over how well preserved the stone reliefs were:
We emerged on the western side of the river and investigated Grupo Norte (the North Group). Here we are on top of one of the structures looking southwest at Templo del Conde:
And the view back from the top of Templo Conde. Palenque is SO photogenic!!
We had climbed 4 pyramids, clambered through tunnels, wandered the jungle like Dr Livingstone, and enjoyed beautiful waterfalls. Our work here was done.
One final view of Templo de las Inscripciones, this time from the northern side. The main thing to note here is the TRUCKLOAD of tourists offloading onto the site. This, mi amigos, is the advantage of getting out of bed early. The peaceful and mystical atmosphere of these sites is simply shattered once the hoardes invade. The earlybirds tend to be few, and they seem to tread peacefully, and reverently, respecting the hush and admiring the beauty of the tranquil morning and the majesty of the edifaces.
It's around noon, so my eastward-looking shot back to El Palacio was now good to go!
On the way out, we passed the turn-off to El Panchan. Guess what? There was the sign for Margarita and Ed's Cabanas! Of course, it was only on the side visible as you're leaving the archeological site, and it's tiny, but who do tourists think they are getting lost in the dark and the slashing rain?
(NB we never actually met Margarita, or Ed. Just a couple of random dudes in a smelly reception-come-bedroom).
We were heading to Calakmul, deep in jungle of the Reserva de la Biosfera Calakmul in Campeche State, and about 50km from the Guatemalan border.
This involved trundling back up through Chiapas and Tabasco (with all very friendly military checkpoints, I might add), and then heading due east on Highway 186. The total distance was around 400km.
Just out of Palenque, we saw these cattle being herded on horseback:
We had been bracing ourselves for a huge day of driving, so we were very pleasantly surprised when we arrived comfortably at Hotel Puerta Calakmul at around 4:30pm. This is an eco-friendly establishment with an extensive use of raw timber. It's rustic elegance, if you will. Here's Sean outside our room, which even had its own hammock on the verandah:
The best bit was the huge dining room/lodge area, featuring floor to ceiling, fully screened windows.
The dining setting was beautiful - made of cactus wood with colourful flowers carved into the top of each chair. It had started raining right as we arrived (we were very grateful not to be driving in the rain after our experience the night before), and it was lovely to sit back and enjoy the jungle surroundings and listen to the rain, without getting wet - or having to find accomodation in the dark.
We were STARVING and thoroughly enjoyed a three-course meal of soup, fish and lemon pie, or spaghetti bolognaise, fajitas and lemon pie if you're Sean.
And while we're capitalising words, we were SUPER excited about Calakmul, and eager to get up very early the next morning to make the hour-long drive through the park to the archeological site. It was probably our most-anticipated site. And because it's deep in the jungle, and far from the beaten track, it's much-less touristed. We hoped to see toucans, monkeys and maybe even wild cats (5 of the 6 Mexican wildcat species inhabit the park). So, after a luxuriant evening of fine food, conversation and sipping top-shelf tequila courtesy of Gary, the very kind and friendly manager, we set the iPhone alarm for, well, rather early, and collapsed into bed.
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