A Howling Goodtime
Friday, December 7th, 2007Day: 32
“Jordana, is that the monkeys?” We were both awake at 5am by a haunting roar that sounded to be right out our window. Have you seen the vampire movie “30 Days of Night”? If not go see it, its not bad. If you have then you will know the sound the vampires make before they attack. Well amplify that by 10 and make it real and happening in the still dark jungle and that is what woke us up at 5 am. I can’t describe the sounds howler monkeys in words, you have to hear it to believe it. Think a lions roar, but then a bit of angry gorilla. I would be surprised if they were never used in a horror movie, bottom line is they will scare the crap out of you!
We were off walking towards the ruins at 7:30am, in a rush to be right at the entrance at opening. Just outside our place we paid our entrance into the park. The friendly ticket man said something in spanish that neither of us understood and we just smiled and started to walk down the road. “I think he said something about a car?” I said to Jordana. I thought it was a 2km walk to the ruins, but upon pulling out the lonely planet I discovered it was more like a 5km walk. I had thought of keeping this information to myself but soon it became apparent to Jordana that the ruins were nowhere in sight. Now I realized the ticket guy probably said, “Stupid gringos, you need a car ya cheap tourists. Hey Pepe, get a load of these fools, walking 5km in the morning heat. Buenos dias fools.” Lucky for us and moreso myself a collectivo (share taxi) soon roared by and we jumped in. Fight averted and we were soon at the site of Palenque.
Ever since meeting a Swiss traveller in Asia years ago and hearing my friend Gareth speak of the ruins here I have been eager to visit. Palenque was first occupied about 100BC and abandoned sometime around 900. For the next 850 years or so the ruins were lost in the thick jungle, overtaken by vines, trees and monkeys. Even the locals were unsure what lay beneath, local mayans spoke of stone palaces in the jungle. Some spanish priest led a trip into the jungle but it wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that excavations began. Count de Waldeck was one interesting character that worked on the site. He actually lived atop a pyramid with a local “lady friend”.
We were the first people of the day to purchase tickets. We entered the site walking uphill through thick jungle foliage. Through the hazy and misty morning light on our right was the Las Inscripiones Group of 4 temples, behind them the green jungle looked ready to retake the buildings. “Wow, this is awesome.” We both said the words. It was a beautiful sight and there were only a few others around. In the distance we could hear howler monkeys and birds singing. The last of the 4 temples is the Temple of Inscriptions, 25meters high it is the tallest here. It contains king Pakals tomb, which was one of the biggest finds in the Maya world. Unfortunately it is now closed to visitors.
We walked around the ruins, which contain 500 excavated buildings of the over 1400 found over a 15 square km area. All very impressive and set in the stunning jungle. However our favourite area of Palenque was an out of the way group of ruins known as Grupo C. Set next to a waterfall and wildly overgrown the buildings weren’t spectacular bit it was the most beautiful area we had seen. We had the area all to ourselves, not another soul in sight.
After about 3 hours of trampling around Palenque we headed back to El Panchan. We had organized a trip to visit the beautiful waterfalls of Misol Ha and Agua Azul. Agua Azul, although busy with people was a great swimming spot. Just what was needed after a day of walking Palenque. I was satisfied and really impressed with the whole sight. In the morning we are off to visit Yaxchilan and Bonampak. Two remote sights southeast of Palenque located in the Lacandon jungle. We also plan to spend a night with a Lancandones family, the indigenous group we had learned about at Na Bolom in San Cristobal. I just hope we weren’t spoiled today with Palenque.
Michael Coroneos