Palenque - we found monkeys!

Monday, February 16, 2015
We decided to walk to the Palenque Ruins, a UNISCO world heritage site, from our campground, our campground being the closest one to the ruins.

It was a tough slug up the hill. Ken saw the positive in this situation by pointing out that we saw our first monkey jumping from tree to tree in the wild. This is good because after a while, we are told when you travel a lot, monkeys become not so much a treat, as a nuisance.

We saw lots of unusual plant life. I must have been in "artist brain" because I took lots of pictures going up that hill.

Before getting to see the actual ruins you go through a maze of artisans setting Palenque related items and tour guides, etc. Then once in the gate you walk past some trees and there before you: are the amazing, breathtaking ruins in a green, jungle setting. You can not imagine how immense and real these ruins become once you initially view them. Pictures give you a view but there is nothing like the real thing. You can walk on these ruins, you can go in hallways or rooms. By the way, the Gothic arch had not been used or invented before the Spanish arrived so this makes the room in the ruins appear narrow. They used the Corbel arch. I am going to get some assistance from Wikipedia to flesh out some basic information about Palenque. It was a Mayan City or State that flourished in the 7th century AD, the actual dates are from about 226 BC to about 799 AD. After it declined, and authorities are unsure why it did, it was absorbed back into the jungle of cedar, mahogany and sapodilla trees. Palenque has some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof combs and bas-relief carvings that the Mayans produced. One of the buildings called Temple of the Inscriptions housed the tomb of Palenque's most famous ruler Pacal the Great. It is estimated that less than 10% of the ruin has been explored according to stats from 2005. This is a medium sized ruin compared to some other ruins. When you are there is seems very huge.

I took pictures of cracking plaster and water drips on the walls as the patterns seemed to fit as ideas for machine quilting.

We walked up and down stairs, through as much of the ruins as we could before we realized we were tired and should head back. The night before in the restaurant we had heard discussions of a waterfall walk. I knew the group was going to be paying for the privilege of going on this walk. I figured it sounded exotic but we were not going to pay extra to go on a walk. Oddly enough we happened upon this waterfall walk when leaving the ruins by another route then we had come in. We were on a groomed trail, with a river or waterfall beside us. The landscape was fairytale like, very lovely. It reminded me of the forest walks of BC but we were in a jungle.

Once back at the camp we spotted small monkeys up in the trees. One was a baby riding on its mother's back. I did get pictures but they are not as close-up as I would have liked.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015
We woke up in the back of our van in the wonderful jungle of Palenque.








We woke up a little earlier than usual because we wanted to leave this area and we wanted to make sure we would  get to Campeche before dark. We wanted to get packed up ready to go and also visit a small museum very close to the Palenque ruins. Arriving at the museum we saw about 10 buses that were parked in front. That let us know that the Palenque ruins would be much busier than they were yesterday, good thing we went yesterday.

The museum housed a copy of the lid of Pakal’s sarcophagus (depicting his rebirth as the maize god, encircled by serpents, mythical monsters and glyphs recounting his reign). You went down some stairs, just as you would have in the past to get to Pakal’s sarcophagus. It obviously gets very busy at this museum as only thirty people are allowed to go into this area at a time. There were also finds from Templo XXI. It had jade jewellery and death masks, pottery taken from the site and sizeable stone sheets of glyphs. Most of one room was taken up with huge, clay incense burners in the form of masked warriors. They had been obviously painted bright colours in the past. There had been a small model of what has been on unearthed of the ruins. It gave a good perspective of the site.

From the campsite we drove into the large town of Palenque. We had heard not good things about the town. We actually thought it was quite charming with coffee shops, etc. that made it quite special. We may get a chance to visit the town when we return.

We drove in such a manner as to start in the state of Chiapas, drove into Campeche, back to Chiapas and ended up in Campeche. We drove past many fields of cattle. I was saddened to see cattle stuffed into the back of a half tonne pulling a trailer burgeoning with more cattle. I am sure they were not out for a drive to see the surrounding sites.

Our final expected spot was a campsite in the city of Campeche. It was almost dark when we arrived. We could not go to another spot safely. We were "stuck" at a noisy, not clean, camp spot. We could hear roosters crowing, dogs barking, etc. plus it was about to rain and was very damp. Oh how I wish we had gotten here sooner so we could go somewhere else.