Today is another big day of driving & sight seeing which will see us start from San Cristobal at 4.00am & finish in Palenque at around 6pm.
We were both lying awake at 3am listening to someone in the opposite room having a deep, heart-felt, very drunk & loud conversation with someone they met that night. Hahaha, it was slightly amusing & meant that we didn't need to the sound from the alarm to wake up & get ready.
When we were waiting in the common room to be picked up in the tour van, a group of people we knew from the hostel just arrived home after a big night. Tom joined them for 1 beer before we were picked up.
Todays tour van was a lot bigger & more comfortable than yesterday's. We got seat's in the front next to the driver, which I was relieved about. The road today promises to be windy.
To pretty much fell asleep straight away, while I stayed awake & shared in a few giggles with the driver when Tom would make some sleepy noises.
The landscape was very very pretty & I was awake to see the sun come up.
We stopped at around 6.30am for a breakfast buffet! Thank god, it won't be like yesterday.
I wasn't really hungry & was disappointed with the pancakes that were burnt, but Tom had a huge pile of Mexican style breakfast options on his plate & was very satisfied.
Shortly after this we would arrive at our first waterfall, The Cascades de Agua Azul!
The stunning waterfall's & the Xanil river are found in the State of Chiapas, around 69 kilometres from Palenque.
We were told to be back in 2 hours & set free! The series of waterfalls we saw here were definitely my favourite. You could hear them & feel the vibrations rumbling through the ground. We could of easily spent the whole day here. There was beautiful walkways next to the river with several view points, market stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs, food stalls, beer's or freshly squeezed juice. Apart from the water fall 7 river, there was pockets of jungle with elevated wooden walkways & signs with potential animal sightings listed. I got way too excited about the signs having pictures of Tucan's & spent a considerable amount of time looking up. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be today! Ill have to see a Tucan somewhere else.
After we met the tour group back at the bus & we began our journey to the next waterfall. The Cascada Misol-ha, located only 20 kilometres from Palenque was one of the most beautiful waterfalls we have ever seen. It drops down 35 metres into an almost perfectly shaped, circular pool at the bottom & is surrounded by lush vegetation. There is a walkway that takes you behind the waterfall & into a cave at the back. It was truly gorgeous! We only had 30 minutes here to explore, if we had our own way, it would be a perfect spot for a day out in nature. I could of stared at this waterfall all day.
This would be our last waterfall today & the next stop was lunch in the town of Palenque at a resort that offers an amazing buffet. The food here was absolutely phenomenal. We piled our plates high with different types of fresh salads, chilli, fruit & tortillas. Tom brought beers, that were nearly abandoned, because the food was so good & kept us so busy. haha
After lunch we drove 20 minutes to The Archaeological Zone of Palenque! something we were really excited to see. In ancient times the Mayan city was known as Lakamha, which basically translates into 'big water'. It saw its peak during the 7th dynasty & then was abandoned & absorbed by the surrounding jungle. A 2.5 square kilometre area, which is an estimated 10% of the city has been excavated & restored, which is what can be seen today. Dating done places the ruins between 226 BC to AD 799. It is one of the most important Masoamerican archaeological sites & definitely one of the most amazing.
The structure's are very large & the excavated site feel's huge, showing off various temple's, palace's, alter's & large scale plumbing. The city is very close to a river & receives a lot of rain fall, it has a very advanced drainage & water redirection solution that prevented erosion & stopped the city from sinking. Evidence of the giant drainage system's & bridges is still very evident now & helped preserve the ruins. We love how the ruins just appear out of the surrounding jungle.
We only had a few hours here & as usual it didn't feel like enough time to explore! This is one of the only negatives about doing tours.
We are always so amazed at how advanced ancient civilisations were & what they left behind, which still amazes hundreds of thousands of people every year. This is my favourite archaeological site so far! It was here that we saw our first Iguana! It was only a small one, about the size of my arm & Tom spotted it lying in a heap of leaf litter next to a big tree. It was very shy, but we managed to gawk at it for a few seconds & take some photos.
After we had finished at the Palenque ruins, the tour van dropped us & some other people off in the centre of Palenque. The people who stayed on the tour van have a long drive back to San Cristobal.
This was such a good way to travel between the 2 towns. Palenque is a small town, though extremely humid when we were there. we could hear an approaching thunder storm, which was really no surprise. We easily found our hotel & brought some cold Coronas to sip on in the room.
Today's cold shower was magical after all the travel, exercise & sweat. We both indulged in a manuka honey face mask that I brought from home.
We went out much later for a small dinner in a small restaurant. Neither of us were very thrilled with what we ordered, but ate it anyway of course.
After dinner we fell asleep in the very large king size bed with the air con going, after watching a few episodes of a really old black & white TV series about spies. It was the only thing in English & was very amusing.
- Alli
We were both lying awake at 3am listening to someone in the opposite room having a deep, heart-felt, very drunk & loud conversation with someone they met that night. Hahaha, it was slightly amusing & meant that we didn't need to the sound from the alarm to wake up & get ready.
When we were waiting in the common room to be picked up in the tour van, a group of people we knew from the hostel just arrived home after a big night. Tom joined them for 1 beer before we were picked up.
Todays tour van was a lot bigger & more comfortable than yesterday's. We got seat's in the front next to the driver, which I was relieved about. The road today promises to be windy.
To pretty much fell asleep straight away, while I stayed awake & shared in a few giggles with the driver when Tom would make some sleepy noises.
The landscape was very very pretty & I was awake to see the sun come up.
We stopped at around 6.30am for a breakfast buffet! Thank god, it won't be like yesterday.
I wasn't really hungry & was disappointed with the pancakes that were burnt, but Tom had a huge pile of Mexican style breakfast options on his plate & was very satisfied.
Shortly after this we would arrive at our first waterfall, The Cascades de Agua Azul!
The stunning waterfall's & the Xanil river are found in the State of Chiapas, around 69 kilometres from Palenque.
We were told to be back in 2 hours & set free! The series of waterfalls we saw here were definitely my favourite. You could hear them & feel the vibrations rumbling through the ground. We could of easily spent the whole day here. There was beautiful walkways next to the river with several view points, market stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs, food stalls, beer's or freshly squeezed juice. Apart from the water fall 7 river, there was pockets of jungle with elevated wooden walkways & signs with potential animal sightings listed. I got way too excited about the signs having pictures of Tucan's & spent a considerable amount of time looking up. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be today! Ill have to see a Tucan somewhere else.
It was at this place, where I peeled my shoes & socks off, to sit next to the river with my feet in the water that I would hear an unusual disturbance behind me & glimpse the last few microseconds of disaster striking. Tom went to buy a beer & as he has returned & stepped out on some of the rocks near where I was sitting, his foot slipped & he slid down off the side of the rocks & into some mud. From the sounds, he tried multiple time's to recover his footing, however the surface of the rocks was disastrously slippery & it was too late. He didn't spill a drop of beer though & apart from smearing mud up his leg, wetting one of his boot's & the same sock, he was unscathed. I was in hysterics.
It's normally me who can't navigate on any terrain without stumbling, slipping, tripping, floundering, blundering, wobbling, tottering, falling or just basically going tits up. Laugh it up folks, I sure did!
After we met the tour group back at the bus & we began our journey to the next waterfall. The Cascada Misol-ha, located only 20 kilometres from Palenque was one of the most beautiful waterfalls we have ever seen. It drops down 35 metres into an almost perfectly shaped, circular pool at the bottom & is surrounded by lush vegetation. There is a walkway that takes you behind the waterfall & into a cave at the back. It was truly gorgeous! We only had 30 minutes here to explore, if we had our own way, it would be a perfect spot for a day out in nature. I could of stared at this waterfall all day.
This would be our last waterfall today & the next stop was lunch in the town of Palenque at a resort that offers an amazing buffet. The food here was absolutely phenomenal. We piled our plates high with different types of fresh salads, chilli, fruit & tortillas. Tom brought beers, that were nearly abandoned, because the food was so good & kept us so busy. haha
After lunch we drove 20 minutes to The Archaeological Zone of Palenque! something we were really excited to see. In ancient times the Mayan city was known as Lakamha, which basically translates into 'big water'. It saw its peak during the 7th dynasty & then was abandoned & absorbed by the surrounding jungle. A 2.5 square kilometre area, which is an estimated 10% of the city has been excavated & restored, which is what can be seen today. Dating done places the ruins between 226 BC to AD 799. It is one of the most important Masoamerican archaeological sites & definitely one of the most amazing.
The structure's are very large & the excavated site feel's huge, showing off various temple's, palace's, alter's & large scale plumbing. The city is very close to a river & receives a lot of rain fall, it has a very advanced drainage & water redirection solution that prevented erosion & stopped the city from sinking. Evidence of the giant drainage system's & bridges is still very evident now & helped preserve the ruins. We love how the ruins just appear out of the surrounding jungle.
We only had a few hours here & as usual it didn't feel like enough time to explore! This is one of the only negatives about doing tours.
We are always so amazed at how advanced ancient civilisations were & what they left behind, which still amazes hundreds of thousands of people every year. This is my favourite archaeological site so far! It was here that we saw our first Iguana! It was only a small one, about the size of my arm & Tom spotted it lying in a heap of leaf litter next to a big tree. It was very shy, but we managed to gawk at it for a few seconds & take some photos.
After we had finished at the Palenque ruins, the tour van dropped us & some other people off in the centre of Palenque. The people who stayed on the tour van have a long drive back to San Cristobal.
This was such a good way to travel between the 2 towns. Palenque is a small town, though extremely humid when we were there. we could hear an approaching thunder storm, which was really no surprise. We easily found our hotel & brought some cold Coronas to sip on in the room.
Today's cold shower was magical after all the travel, exercise & sweat. We both indulged in a manuka honey face mask that I brought from home.
We went out much later for a small dinner in a small restaurant. Neither of us were very thrilled with what we ordered, but ate it anyway of course.
After dinner we fell asleep in the very large king size bed with the air con going, after watching a few episodes of a really old black & white TV series about spies. It was the only thing in English & was very amusing.
- Alli
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