Maya Ruins Galore: Palenque, Yaxchilan, Bonampak and the Lacandon Jungle

17/09/09-21/09/09

After bidding a sad farewell to San Cristóbal, we made our way northwards to the city of Palenque, a five-hour bus ride away. Arriving quite late in the evening, we did not see much of the town, but immediately noticeable was the dramatic change in temperature. Palenque is situated at 200m above sea level, compared to San Cristóbal, which resides at 2,100m above the sea! Whereas the evenings in the latter were very cool and we had blankets on our bed in the hotel, Palenque is unbearably hot and airless, even during the night! I had to move the bed so that it was directly under the fan, and still I had trouble sleeping. The town itself is quite small with not much in the way of sights, so our first day was fairly relaxed, but Palenque is not famous for the town itself, but rather for its impressive Maya ruins, which we visited the next day. The Mayas are thought to have lived from around 200BC to 900AD, which the classic Maya period dating from 200AD to 900AD, when the community is believed to have suffered its downfall, probably due to the lack of water and food in the area. The period during which Palenque was at its most glorious was during the 7th century, which happens to also coincide with the reign of Palenque's greatest and most poweful governor, Pakal. He ruled for approximately 68 years, and lived for 80, which is quite remarkable when the average life expectancy was a mere 25 to 30 years, but being governor, he never had to exert himself very much, as he had servants to do everything for him, so I suppose it's understandable.

The area that we got to see of Palenque represents only 5% of the total site, (the other 95% is still immersed in the surrounding jungle), and consists of several impressive temples and the palace, which was one of the first structures to be discovered in around 1872 (I think). In front of the palace stand three temples: the Temple of the Inscriptions, which to this day houses the tomb of the great ruler, Pakal (founded in 1952), the Temple of the Red Queen, whose name derives from the fact that a tomb was discovered with the remains of a woman inside, along with many expensive offerings, which suggest that she had been a woman of great importance (founded in 1993), and the Temple of the Skull (founded in 1994). You used to be able to visit the tomb of Pakal, but the moisture inside has made it very dangerous to descend into the crypt and so it was decided to close it to the public, but they have a magnificent replica in the onsite museum, which gave us an idea of what it is like. The tomb and Pakal's remains are still intact within the temple because when it was attempted to move them, the bones began to disintegrate, and so it was thought wiser to leave them be. As for the remains of the Red Queen, they are apparently being investigated somewhere in Canada, in an attempt to determine who she was. It is thought that she could be the mother or wife of Pakal, but it is difficult for them to tell, as Pakal's wife was also his sister, and so DNA testing would be useless in this case. I have no idea how they will find it out. It was during this visit that we first saw the guy who came to be known between Vic and I as the 'mysterious man', because he seemed to appear everywhere, and he was always alone and yet always seemed to fit in and look as if he knew exactly where to go. The first time we saw him was when he asked our guide a question about Pakal's tomb, and we saw him later again that day when we were in a minivan back to town. He appeared out of nowhere on the side of the road and our minivan picked him up, and then he disappeared again when we arrived.

The next couple of days were spent on an overnight tour, which took us to two more Maya ruin sites: Yaxchilan and Bonampak, finally leaving us at a Lacandon reserve in the region of Lacanja, where we would spend the night in a cabin. The tour set off very early in the morning and we were a group of about 10 people. The first stop of the trip was a breakfast stop, and our group met up with several others who were, I assume, doing the same or a similar tour to us. We were surprised to find ourselves at the same table as the 'mysterious man' from yesterday, but apart from offering him some butter and jam, the conversation didn't really get going :) We were then taken to the Usumacinta River, where we got in a speed boat to Yaxchilan, the first of the ruins. We had 2 hours to explore the site, and I'm afraid to say that we didn't make good use of them. We missed out on a whole section of the site because we hadn't noticed the path which would lead us there. We had suspected this was the case, as everyone from our group had disappeared, and we didn't have any idea where to. It was the 'mysterious man' who confirmed our suspicions. Yes, we saw him again here and we decided to ask him if there was more to see than just the area that we were in, and he replied that yes there was, and that it was a lot more impressive than the part we were in. We felt a bit foolish and were annoyed at having wasted so much time (the time we had left at this point wasn't enough to see the other part of the site), but then again, once you have seen one set of ruins, they all start to look the same anyway, so we soon got over it :) Back at the river waiting for our speed boat we got chatting to two people from our group, a brother and sister from Germany called Christoph and Sophie. Sophie had been working as a nurse in Guadalajara and her brother had come out to meet her to do a bit of travelling before she returned home. The next stop was lunch, and the four of us sat together and got to know each other a bit better, which was nice :) They were the only other two people in our group that would spend the night in the jungle, so we were glad to know that we had some good company.

After lunch we made our way to the ruins of Bonampak, where we spent just one hour. The most impressive thing here were some fantastic murals in excellent condition depicting various events in the history of the site, including battles and sacrificial rituals. This is the greatest example of original coloured Maya artwork that can be seen at any of the Maya sites. Finally we were dropped off at the Lacandon reserve, where we would spend the night, and we were greeted by the head of the Lacandones, Vicente, dressed in the typical white sheet and with long, flowing hair (this is how all of them dress). During a quick walk of the grounds we saw that they have several chickens (so that's where they got our dinner from that evening) and that they were in the process of harvesting corn. We were tempted to help them pick some, but it was so warm that we were tempted more to go for a swim in the river. We were glad to see that it wasn't just the four of us there for the night, there were a few other people as well, including the 'mysterious man', who we really didn't think we would run into again, but there you go. During our swim, we got chatting to a couple of Spanish guys from Barcelona who had just recently started a one-year trip around the world. Guys, if you see this, I hope you're enjoying yourselves wherever you are :) That afternoon, while we resting in the hammocks before dinner, we finally got to meet the 'mysterious man', who turned out to be Dani from Madrid, and together with Christoph and Sophie we had a really fun night involving uno, imaginary volleyball and lots of beer :) We all got on so well that we arranged to meet up again a few days later in Tulum on the Carribean coast!

The next morning, we said goodbye to Dani and the other two Spanish guys, who were taking a minibus to Flores in Guatemala. Christoph and Sophie were staying with us and a few others to go for a 4 hour hike in the jungle. Our guide was a member of the Lacandones and showed us several trees and plants that the community uses for medicinal purposes. One of the trees he showed us was poisonous and if you strip off the bark you can watch as drops of white liquid form on the exposed area. The poison can have serious effects if you do not apply the antidote quickly, which can be found in the leaf of a neighbouring tree! Our guide also showed us a plant that is effective against snake bites! Living proof that this works can be found in his grandfather who has been bitten by a snake seven times and always lived to tell the tale :) On the way back from our walk we got to have a refreshing swim in a crystal clear lake. It was a bit cold but after all that walking it was a more than welcome break :) Unfortunately it started raining just as we were getting out of the water so we had to walk the rest of the way back in the rain (45 mins), but once we were back we had a nice, hot shower and a good lunch and then whiled away the rest of the afternoon in the hammocks.

At around 4pm we were picked up and taken back to Palenque, from where Christoph and Sophie were taking a bus straight to Tulum that evening. We were hoping to catch an early bus the next day, but were disappointed to find out that there are only evening services, so we would have to spend another day in Palenque!!! We pretty much spent the whole day in the internet and then went to catch our bus at 8pm. It was an 11-hour journey to Tulum meaning we we would arrive there at 7am the following morning and attempt to meet up with Christoph and Sophie.