Ruins in the Jungle
Travel Location: Palenque,Mexico
Hmm…How to describe the hellish trip from San Cristobal to Palenque? Take the most twisty road on the Blue Ridge Pkwy, multiply by 10…hairpin turn after hairpin turn…then just for fun throw in 200…yes,200!…SPEED BUMPS in a 280 km trip. So basically, it was speed up, slow down for hairpin turn, speed up, come to stop and crawl diagonally over a massive speed bump, speed up, slow down for a set of ¨Vibradores¨..which are a series of 3 smaller speed bumps…now repeat. Those of you who know me will not be surprised to hear that 3 hours into the trip I was screaming ALTO!!! (Stop!!) One look at my green pallor and our dear and patient driver, Don Gerado, went careening off the side of the road as I swung the door open and…I won´t bore you with the gory details.
Now, I tell you all that to put my next sentence in context. It was worth it to get to Aqua Azul. Agua Azul sits about 1 hour from Palenque and is basically a natural water park. A series of waterfalls in a jungle lead to several large natural smooth stone pools. As the water tumbles over all these water falls, it picks up minerals which turn it an incredible shade of aquamarine. And it seems to aerate and pick up bubbles. So sitting in the water is like sitting in very cold club soda. It was crowded…this is afterall a vacation week for much of Mexico. So mixed in with the tourists were tons of local families. It was a loud and crazy mix of humanity enjoying a natural wonder and we loved it..
Our hotel is great. Garrett was thrilled to find a TV in the room. (We hadn´t seen a TV in 5 days.) There´s a nice open plaza with a pool and a cafe in the middle of the hotel. A Marimba band played on the patio while we ate dinner last night and Jules is hoping to visit the pool between raindrops later.
We hit the ruins this morning. The rain forest has certainly lived up to it´s name. It has drizzled on and off most of the day, with a few real periods of rain followed by steamy sun. The vegetation is unbelievably lush. Having never seen a rain forest, I´m impressed by the diversity of plant and animal life. We are taking a jungle tour tomorrow to look for monkeys and medicinal plants.
The Palenque Ruins are wonderful. They are pretty well preserved for 2000 years old. We picked up part of a tour and learned about the people and the religion. They had latrines that emptied into an aquaduct that washed everything away through a series of underground canals. They also painted the interior surfaces of their bedrooms with the shiny sap from a cactus to give it a mirror like quality that would reflect the light that came in through small strategically placed windows. In this way, with a minimum of sun they could light the inside of these great stone rooms. This kept them cool yet bright. Of course, the kids were more interested in the human sacrifices and the ritual piercing of tongues and penises to give blood to the earth and ensure a good harvest. (I bet the men in the audience are glad we now use Peter´s Plant Food instead.)
We have one more day here and then on to Villerhosa for a night and then home again.
