Martin um die Welt: 6) Palenque - Maya ruins in the jungle

Dienstag, 6. Januar 2015

6) Palenque - Maya ruins in the jungle

Our bus from Campeche started about 1 am to Palenque. The bus was full and most of the people were sleeping. And so did we shortly after the bus left Campeche. On the way it started raining a lot. We sure were to enter rainforest area^^ After 2/3 of the trip we were stopped, police entered and checked passports of all foreigners. We then arrived early morning (06.01.) in Palenque, where we waited 15min for Fabio and Lorie to arrive with their bus. Together we took a taxi to the tiny backpacker village El Panchan that is located close to the archeological zone of Palenque. It was still raining and we decided to check out the Lonely Planet tipp Cabanas Margarita & Ed first. We were lucky to find two rooms there. The owners were helpful, the rooms the cheapest we had during our travel while still have good quality (stone building, good sized and clean room). Thus, we can absolutely recommend that place!
After some relax time waiting for the rain to become less, we enjoyed breakfast at an Italian restaurant that was placed at the entrance of El Panchan village. Afterwards, we walked with raincoat and umbrella to the Maya ruins of Palenque. We quickly liked the setting of the park a lot. Shortly after the entrance we crossed a bridge overlooking a small waterfall. Some climbing later the ruins slowly appeared within the huge forest area. This simply is a perfect setting for old ruins. Much better than Chichen Itza and even better than Uxmal. It was a lot of fun climbing the temples and houses and to enjoy some great views from the mountains or over the ruins.

Franzi and I crossing the bridge over the small waterfall

Fabio and I in front of the great valley views from the mountain

Franzi and I overlooking Palenque Maya ruins

Panorama-action again :)

From the archeological zone, we then paid one of the collectivos to bring us to the waterfall Mishol-Ha. Due to the rain during the past days, the waterfall stream was strong. The most amazing feature was the possibility to walk behind the waterfall. Fabio and Franzi covered themselves with big raincoats (Franzi simply took mine :P), while Lorie and I had to go uncovered. A strong wind was blowing behind the waterfall splashing a lot of water at us. Especially with the waterfall being that strong, parts of the way were inaccessible. But it was an amazing experience and we had a lot of fun. We then dried ourselves in the setting sun before we returned to our guesthouse. For dinner we went to the Italian restaurant again and continued our great talks with Fabio and Lorie. The food was great and cheap compared to Yucatan. Despite the great Mexican food, everyone seemed happy about having some Italian food^^
The next day (07.01.) we had to say goodbye to Fabio and Lorie. They took a daytrip to Yaxchilan and then continued to Tulum, while we made our way to Flores in Guatemala.