Palenque, monkeys and ruins

For the five hours ride between Campeche and Palenque we opted for a first class bus: five hours non-stop of silly movies and even sillier TV shows blasted at full volume. Forget about sleeping or reading a book. We'll probably opt for second class from now on: it may be slower but at least one can get some rest.

In Palenque the weather was either horribly hot or pouring rain, so we spent most of the afternoon in our air conditioned room. The city of Palenque isn't especially nice so we probably didn't miss much. In spite of being a charmless town, Palenque is one of the most visited places in Mexico: it sits just a few kilometres away from the famous homonymous Mayan ruins, and this is why we came here too.

The next day we got up early and hopped into a 'colectivo' (minibus for local transport) to reach the ruins at opening time. The place can become horribly crowded on Sundays, since the archaeological area is free for Mexicans. We managed to get there in time, but once inside I made a sad discovery: I had left my cap inside the colectivo. I convinced the guy at the entrance to let me exit and re-enter without a new ticket and ran towards the parking lot. Unfortunately the minivan had left already, and my cap with it. Travelling with a light baggage one tends to get especially attached to one's few belongings, at least I do. A simple cap can become almost a travel companion and it's sad to lose it, not to mention that the direct sun light kills my eyes without it. Fortunately K doesn't use her cap much, so I'll be able to use hers until I find a replacement.

Not convinced about the replacement cap

After the bad start everything went perfectly well. The ruins are beautiful. A big palace, a large number of temples and some residential areas are spread around a large jungle area. You can climb on top of most temples and wander around almost everywhere, a nice change from Chichen Itzá where many areas were closed to the public. We spent a couple of hours exploring the area.

'El Palacio' building

K climbing up

Walking around the park you can often hear the loud and scary calls of howler monkeys. At the beginning we thought that it was some kind of large feline (a jaguar perhaps) that growled from the depth of the vegetation. We couldn't believe that a monkey could produce that horrible sound, until we saw them with our own eyes. They are considered to be one of the loudest land animals, and what a scary sound! They live in small groups on top of tall trees, and the males of different groups 'howl' angrily at each other to protect their group and their territory. I'm glad that we first heard them on a bright day instead of at night.

Howler monkey

The visit to the ruins is completed with a tour of the extremely interesting museum. The remains of the tomb of Pacal the Great are really spectacular.

The tomb of Pacal is huge and richly decorated

Mayan glyphs

Since at our return to Palenque it wasn't raining we spent some time exploring the town's center. It was pleasant to just sit in the main square listening to a 'marimba' (sort of a big wooden xylophone) concert and watching elder couples dancing. It's not a pretty town but we enjoyed our short time in Palenque.

Tomorrow morning we move to San Cristobal de las Casas, in the heart of Chiapas and of the Zapatistas territory. I've heard about this place from many travellers over the years and I can't wait to get there. Even more so considering that we'll meet a friend of mine. He's visiting his family and we'll be staying at their place for a few days.