15 de Noviembre (A reflection)

We moved from Zipolite on the night of the 13th headed to the city of Palenque. We had originally bought tickets for a 14 hour bus ride heading to San Cristobal de las Casas, but having heard that this mountain town was freezing cold we decided to skip it. Instead, Mari and I bought tickets that circumnavigated the vomitous mountain roads leading to and from San Cristobal, opting on a lesser known path that goes from Zipoite to Huatulco, Huatulco to Juchitan, Juchitan to VillaHermosa, and finally Villahermosa to Palenque. This route was a little more expensive, but proved to be the faster more efficient route in the end. In total it took us around 12 hours from start to finish, but that includes a few short layovers as well.

Having reached the city of Palenque, we quickly hopped in a collectivo headed out to the ruins and a hostel community called El Ponchon. El Ponchon is located out in the jungle just a few kilometers from the ruins themselves, and consists of only 5 different hostel/hotel accomodations and 2 restaurants. We ended up staying at a place aptly named Jungle Palace. It consisted of individual cabañas interspersed in the jungle placed next to a meandering stream. Both mornings we awoke to the gutteral howl of monkeys in the trees above.

The first day we settled in and made reunions with our group of friends as we had all split and taken differing paths and timelines to arrive in Palenque. But the second day we signed up for an all day tour that would allow us 4 hours in the Palenque ruins, 1 hour at Misol Ha, and another 4 hours at Aqua Azul.

Our morning started around 8:00 am with the Palenque ruins.

Palenque was exquisite, and I find that I could walk all of these ancient ruin sites if I had the time and money to reach each and every one of them, as there are many scattered across the landscape of Mexico. The thing I find amazing is the lack of knowledge we have about the civilizations that flourished here in its hey day. Many of the buildings have plaques that explain what experts believe the building may have been used for, but I get the feeling little is absolutely certain.

After leaving the ruins, we headed to a waterfall named Misol Ha.

The waterfall was beautiful, with a large swimming pool for cool refreshment. Mari slipped in for a quick swim, while I made my way around the back beneath the waterfall, doused in the moist mist sweeping up from the crashing impact of the falling water with the pool. Time escaped quickly here, and before we knew it we were racing off to our final destination. A four hour date with Aqua Azul, an exquisite site located roughly 60 kms away.

I have to segway here for a second to better explain what it means to have a site located 60 kms away. This means that one must get into a van or taxi and drive there, as is typically done anywhere in the world. Yet, no one fully explained to me (or prepared me at all) what Mexican roads and driving are like. Coming from a Civil Engineering background, I really want to meet the guys that created the roads here. It seems they were very very averse to any thoughts on creating a straight section of road. Rather, I think they tried to squeeze in as many tight death defying curves as possible per kilometer. This, added to the fact that everyone here drives around 80 kms per hour makes for some white knuckle rides. It was possible for me to relax a bit and enjoy it for what it was - an experience and an adventure, but in no way was it actually acceptable and I feel lucky to still be in one piece. Anyway..... I am here to write again so lets move on.

After a harrowing drive through the Mexican country side, we arrived at the Cascades of Aqua Azul.

A beautiful series of blue water cascades with many swimming pools located both up and downstream. I went swimming here. The water was crisp and cool, but felt good once the initial cold shock had subsided. The site had a wonderfully constructed "boardwalk" that meandered next to the river and allowed easy perusal when moving along the length of the river with local stalls on the other side selling local wares.

As we were outside the rural zone, we were in a location where the locals speak a mayan language named Tzeltal. The locals take the opportunity to sell their products to the foreigners, and there are many cute little children running around selling food products.


Mari was having a great conversation with two little girls that were cousins, asking them about their life, culture and language. Luckily these girls are learning spanish in school and could communicate with us. They were friendly and quite enjoyable, probably loving to speak to us and much as we loved speaking to them. While at the ruins in Palenque Mari tried to strike up a conversation with two little boys playing on an abandoned truck on the side of the road, but the conversation didnt get too far because the boys only spoke the local mayan dialect and not spanish.

Its now morning here in Campeche and we have a wonderful roof top patio at our disposal. I am going to atake this opportunity to catch some morning sun on the roof and read my Spanish Review and Practice book. Take care.

T