"Palenque" Mexico Travelogue by paradisedreamer

We got the 11am bus to Palenque. It was another twisting and turning trip down through the mountains. Poor Sam was sick three times, she was really good and made it to the toilet each time, she was so pale by the time we finally got there, not fun at all. Despite the fact that she was sick the scenery along the way was stunning as always, as we descended the vegetation got greener and greener, it was nice to be back in the jungle and the heat again. San Cristobal is cool during the day and freezing at night (well 15 degrees is freezing when you are used to 30 degrees and humidity). Good morning Vietnam was on the TV during the journey, haven’t seen it in ages!

When we got to Palenque we were in such a rush to get Sam to the hotel so she could lie down that we left her brand new handbag on the bus. Marc went racing back to the bus station but the bus had already left!! She was not having a good day.

We had an early dinner at the hotel, the service was bad and the food was worse, well mine was anyway. We decided that going to bed would be the best thing for all of us!

It was a good thing that we planned ion being up early or the building work that began at 6:30am would have been really irritating. It was a bit much having then banging and crashing above our heads that early and it was a Saturday. I wasn’t too bothered since we wanted to get to the ruins early but Marc complained out of principal (in his Spanish it translates to looking at the desk clerk angrily pointing upstairs and then at his watch and then placing both hands under his head to signify sleep).

We got a taxi to the ruins, there i a 10 peso fee to get into the park and then 38 pesos for the ruins. We were nice and early so we had our tickets and were waiting at the entrance gate at 8am when the gates open. There was still some morning mist over the pyramids which looked so lovely and a bit spooky, it soon burned off but it was worth getting up early to see. We first went into one of the tombs, we have not been able to go into the tombs at any of the other sites so this was a novelty. When we came out the tour groups arrived so we made our way to the far end of the site while they had to listen to all the bumpf. We practically had the place to ourselves for the first hour. By the time we got to the central pyramid that you can climb it was getting pretty crowded. We climbed to the top of the pyramid, there is a lot to see, various rooms and some good reliefs on the walls. We found some stairs leading down and this led to many tombs and more stairs going inside the pyramid eventually leading to the bottom and out to the base of the pyramid, very different to any other ruins we have been to.

Sam was playing with her new ball (to replace the one she lost on the bus) and ended up wiping out on the gravel cutting her knee up and oh heavens there was blood so we had lots of tears. Poor kid just cant win! We managed to find some pained butterfly ornaments in the market outside which placated her a little. (Her new room is going to be all butterflies). We had lunch at the restaurant and got a collectivo back to town.

There isn’t much to do in Palenque town, we did some shopping and then got our bags ready to leave. We had a 10:45pm bus to Playa del Carmen that night. We asked the hotel to call a taxi for us and in all their helpfulness they did not manage it (note sarcasm) so we found one ourselves. Our bus ended up being late, we just wanted to get to Playa!
When we finally got on the bus all I could smell was sick and there was an ominous looking bag under the seat in front of us, I was not about to check. Sam passed out straight away and slept for nine hours solid, Marc also slept well and I tossed and turned aaargh!!! 12 hours on a bus is a long, bum numbing journey.