Palenque

11 Mar Written By Samuel Gadd

9 hrs (with stops) by private minibus to get to Palenque. Some rough roads and a bit of beautiful ocean view near Champoton. At our Hotel Maya Tulipanes Palenque we went for a dip in the pool, wandered around Palenque town, then had dinner at Restaurante Maya Cañada. Chaya tamales were pretty good!

Visit to the archeological site of Palenque. Only about 5% of this site has been uncovered. So in the morning we did a walk through the jungle to see a couple of building ruins that are overgrown but visible. Our guide also told us about many old Mayan traditions and how some of those ways of life struggle to persist today. This guide had interesting stories but talked for too long. Then we went into the main archeological site with several very impressive excavated temples. These ruins date from between about 200BC and 800AD. These mostly had astronomical purposes to keep track of agricultural planting times according to our guide. 

Visit to a set of swimmable and diveable cascading waterfalls. A local guide showed us how to get to each jumping point and how to jump. In total we jumped 5 times, ranging from 3 metres to 7 metres high! What an exhilarating experience. There was even a little cavern under one of the waterfalls which could only be reached by swimming underwater a few feet. The guide was a local who didn't speak any English He scampered up and down the waterfalls with ease while we were slow to follow. Then he would show us where to put our feet and how to jump by gesturing with his fingers.