Twenty years ago we did a three week bike trip in the Yucatan peninsula starting and ending in Cancun. The last few days of that trip, packed and ready to ride up the coast from Chetumal,just North of Belize, we see TV broadcast "Hoy! Hurricane Mitch, cinco!". We decide to get back to Cancun as quickly as possible by taking a bus. We had cycled from Cancun to Merida seeing Chitzen Itza and then to Uxmal to Palenque. It will be interesting to compare our 1997 scanned slide pictures of Palenque to the present day.
We also back then took a tour to Yachilan and Bonampak sites bordering Guatemala. All the trucks and tour buses lined up early for the road to open and drove in convoys because of bandits. When cycling in Chiapas, soldiers where stationed in machine gun bunkers. A very different atmosphere from today.
We are up early, Patrick turns in our laundry for the hotel to do, a welcome break from the chore for Rachel. We walk to a shop and get coffee for the taxi ride to the ruins. We notice a bike lane going toward the ruins. We are happy to follow our basic rest day rule, no riding bikes. As it turns out, we enter and exit at different places, and not to worry about where to park the bikes is a plus. The driver stops for us to pay the National Park fee of 35 pesos each, then drops us off at the higher entrance. After walking through the ruins, where vendors selling souvenirs line the walkways ,there is a jungle walk past the Cascades exiting by the museum. The entrance fee of 70 pesos. about $4 includes the museum where some of the original statues and carvings are preserved. Now a UNESCO Heritage site, Palenque or Lakamha means "big water" and flourished in the 7th century under the ruler Pakal. Enjoy the photos!
Today being the Fourth of July and no backyard BBQ, we go to Burger King for a hamburger for dinner.
Our first (or second if you count 20 years ago) sight of the Palenque main courtyard. Three large pyramids face the Palace.
The Mayan architects did not discover the true arch. Instead their interior spaces are covered with a vaulted angled ceiling with a capstone. This is called a Maya Arch.
The reliefs at Palenque are either carved in soft limestone, or in plaster. Soft materials and therefore not many have survived. Many of the better ones have been removed and and now displayed in the museum. These are plaster reliefs on the Palace.
Tower in the Palace. It is not known what the purpose of this structure was. When the palace was intact the decorations on the surrounding buildings were almost as high as the tower. A explanation would be that is was used for celestial observations.
Every morning hordes of souvenir sellers lug their wares into the site and set up for the day. They painstakingly arrange all their wares and wait for the tourists. Most sell exactly the same stuff, probably bought from whole sellers. You wonder what they earn for a day's work.
We find the Palenque post office to finally mail our postcards. Most Central American countries do no longer have a postal system that works. Progress or are we all going backwards?
