Palenque

With one last set of ruins on the agenda we got up at 5:30am (an achievement since we had been at our own margarita fiesta till midnight the night before)and boarded a mini bus that would take us on the 5 hour drive to Palenque. Located in Chiapas deep in Zapista territory- the drive along mountain ranges and through teeny tiny towns was enough too keep you occupied.

We stopped at a couple of waterfalls for breakfast and swims (and a KP vomit mid morning, motion sickness i think) and reached Palenque in time for lunch.

The ruins are located in a clearing on the edge of dense forest- toucan and monkey territory.

Like Tikal and Tullum they are stunning. I can´t put my finger on exactly what it is but they are special, they are the most beautiful I have seen on this trip. It might be the fact that the inscriptions are still clearly visible or the fact that some of them are open and you can walk inside and imagine a time when life lived within the walls but they are amazing.

The Maya were such a sophisticated civilisation that I knew nothing about before this trip. I still know very little but hope to read up on them so i can beef this blog up with more detail for you.

The drive back was pretty scary, at times the roads were completely blanketed in fog and you could not see more than a few metres ahead. We drove past 2 overturned trucks and we could not help but think that bad things happen in threes... who invented that anyway?

Our driver was a legend, a jolly, fat Mexican with a moustache who joked about who he was going to marry- sometimes me sometimes Ra...

Lots of love

KP

XXX