Palenque Mayan Ruins

This is the Temple of Pakal. Archaeologist discovered King Pakal's tomb, and his intricately carved tomb cover. 

Night buses are not really fun. However, it is totally worth waking up in the morning in a new location, and a new adventure. I arrived in Palenque at 6:30am, just as the sun was rising over the mountains and the city was beginning to wake up. I grabbed a quick caffeine burst from the little convenience store, and stretched my legs on a stroll around town in search of a panaderia. The zocolo, or central plaza, is full of the normal fair or artisans and lunch vendors who make a good profit from tourist's visiting the ruins of Palenque, and gorgeous waterfalls nearby.
  I took a collectivo bus the ten minutes out of town to the entrance of the archaeological ruins. I was one of the first handful of visitors into the park, and that made it even more special. Without the excess of people crowding around you can start to let you imagination wander. I felt like I was really discovering something special, as you walk out of the jungle canopy and into the main courtyard of the Mayan king Pakal. They say that during the Classic Period of the Maya Palenque was the biggest city.

The main palace. Directly across from Pakals tomb. 

   I once took a class on ancient Mayan civilization when I was going to school in California. My teacher rarely came to class with a curriculum prepared, but he always had the best stories to share. This is one of the most important characteristics about Mayan culture today. Oral tradition, story telling, and festivals are the few ways that remnants of the Maya history survive. My Mayan civ teacher had this silly notion that in 14 weeks his students would be able to read Mayan scripted tablets. Lets just say I was not translating for anyone yesterday.

Temple of the sun. 

Pretty sure this was the courtyard of Pikal's son. 

Artifacts from the ruins on display in the museum

   The intricacy of their scripts, carvings, and masks astounds me. At the base of the ruins is a museum where they have many of the artifacts on display, taken from the tomb of Pakal and the temples surrounding. The images are carved in stone, but detail of the facial features and textures on the clothing looks like it was done by machine! During my spanish class last semester we studied a little of Mayan civilizations, and my professor pointed out they didn't have netflix or facebook back then. Less distractions, and more time to look at the stars and carve hieroglyphs.

A tablet of Mayan  script.

    There were plenty of ways to keep myself busy, and stay in Palenque. However, I was anxious to get to San Cristobal de Las Casas, and took the afternoon bus. I had this idea that the topography of Mexico was mostly dessert with some jungle thrown in on the eastern side. HA!!! The bus ride between Palenque and San Cris felt like I was on a Six Flags roller coaster ride. We climbed up and down and up and down mountains on a 2 lane "highway", with speed bumps every 100m for 6 hours. Not sure why the driver felt like he was at the Indy 500 in a 50 passenger bus. There were a few occasions where I really was unsure if we would make the hairpin turns!
  i am staying at the Rossco Backpacker Hostel in San Cristo... really great spot. The are plenty of dogs to give it a homey feel, and an asshole cat that tried to eat my cereal this morning. (we're working things out!) Last night around the fire pit I met two people from Tijuana! They are awesome, and told me all sorts of things I didn't know about Tijuana! For example because its such a big place for people to move to trying to cross the boarder you can find any sort of food you want there! Me and food. Aye. Aye. Aye.

The waterfalls of the bats... Not sure why they are called that. They are located where the ruins finish.