Indiana Shaw & the temples of Palenque
Trip Start
Dec 22, 2009
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19
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Trip End
Sep 23, 2010
Palenque, Central Mexico and Gulf Coast, Mexico
Friday, January 29, 2010
The adventure to Palenque started on Wednesday morning when I said Adios to my Mexican family and headed to the market to pick up my jeans (80c for a patched up behind...), then hopped in a taxi and headed for the bus station. After losing my cool with an annoying driver who took me a long way and tried to charge me double the going rate in San Cristobal (my first bad taxi man experience - and I didn't pay double for the record), I grabbed a bus ticket and stocked up on lollies for the 5 and a half hour journey to Palenque. The ride wasn't quite the vomit comet (as mentioned in an earlier entry), but the road to Palenque is pretty windy, and the never ending speed bumps constructed by the locals turn what should be a short journey into a bloody long one. Arriving at about 5pm I caught a cab (this time a nice one!) into El Panchan - the jungle part of Palenque aka the place to be as Palenque town is nothing worth seeing, especially as at the moment it is one big construction site - good times walking through broken bricks to do some laundry! Arriving at El Panchan I headed for the cabanas that sounded cool in Lonely Planet to find another 10 backpackers walking away aimlessly as it was announced the place was booked out. Luckily I stumbled across Livio - a Swiss guy I had met in San Cris and had just forked out for a twin room - saved him half the price and got myself a place to stay. We had dinner with some French Canadians at 'Don Muchos' - around the bend and through the scattered jungle cabanas - a happening little place with great food and a local band that played through until about 2am (i know this because I was trying to sleep at the time) - none the less they sounded very cool. Leaving the boys to it at about 11, I headed back to the cabana (seriously losing my way for a minute), to find a giant turantula on the wall next to the door (the photo doesn't do it justice). Jaw to the floor I took a photo from a distance, visions of the thing jumping onto my face meaning my hands were shaking, then I ran inside, slammed the door and wrote Livio a note saying don't you dare let that thing in! i then searched the entire cabana for more spiders before attempting to sleep, trying not to imagine a turantula crawling on my face in the night...
Come morning I headed for the ruins - a 10 minute mini bus ride up the road to the archeological site that dates back to 600 ish AD (in some parts). An amazing site - I took hours looking at all the ruins, which spread over a massive area, trying to imagine people constructing these huge things with their bare hands. I climbed up several temples (where I'd have to sit for half an hour ro get my breath back!), walked through tombs (Indiana Jones style) and delved into the jungle to explore further ruins. It was quite an eerie place but amazing, I've never seen anything like it.
At about 2pm I went into town to get some food (a banana had sufficed until then), picked up some washing and headed back to the cabana for a siesta, much needed after dreams of spiders.
This morning it was back to San Cristobal on the 9am bus, which felt quicker than the one on the way there, although I had my first heart in the stomach experience. Half way home we were stopped by the 'military', who are not really the military but anti government protestors. Being a Zapatista area this sort of thing apparently used to be quite common - they threw a big piece of wood with spikes on it in front of the bus and boarded in order to relay their message and ask for 'donations'. Not knowing what was going on I watched from the window and kept my head down as I was at the back of the bus, and as a result escaped being seen and saved my pesos! Good times. The rest of the trip was smooth sailing, and I'm now in a room opposite my German mates who are accompanying me to Guatemala in the morning... First time I've had my own bathroom in a month which is awesome. Just thought I'd share that.
Comments
Did you name the Spider snuggles? Wicked pic by the way!- though i wish you put a coin or something near it so we could get a measure of size?? :)
I have to stop watching Banged up abroad if you are going to have these scarey 'anti govt' experiences!!!! remember what i told you....
love you xxxxxx