PALENQUE

Day 10 20.07.15

As we were leaving on a private bus at 08:00 in the morning, breakfast had to be a quick matter. We therefore went to the breakfast to the same restaurant where we had gone on our first day after the night bus, as we knew they were open this early on and that they understood when food had to come quickly. Well how wrong were we. We ordered breakfast before any of the other guests who gradually came into the restaurant and sat down. So as we were waiting and noticing that these other guests were receiving their breakfast and we weren’t, I went up to the waiter and asked him where our food was. He answered that he was just about to put our order into the system. We cancelled our order, got some juices and some toast instead and hoped that it would be there before 08:00. This is where the lovely term “Hangry” comes to play. It is a lovely combination of Hungry and Angry. We were definitely all hangry, as we were hoping for a good breakfast to start our day, and only received an odd slice of toast.

After breakfast I hurried back to the hotel to get my stuff and quickly pack the rest of my luggage. I was in a real hurry and unfortunately only checked the bathroom for things I might have left behind and the bed. I did not however check under the bed. This is where my money belt stayed put. I left my room and boarded the private transport. After about 30 minutes, the whereabouts of my money belt came back into my mind and I realised I had left a larger amount of dollars back in the hotel room. My first reaction; a small silent panic, my second reaction, maybe I can still get this back. Our tour guide helped me and with a bit of convincing managed to get the hotel we stayed at to check whether the belt was still there and whether the money was still in the belt. As the answer was yes and yes, my tour guide also managed to get the money and the belt to be transported to the next city via the private transport tours. Lucky me!

Driving through the region of Chiapas from San Cristobal to Palenque was quite a site. Apart from the curvy and winding roads (which weren’t that much of a problem) and the numerous speed bumps (which were a problem!), the vegetation was beautiful. Everywhere you could look there were corn plantations and little farmer huts dotted around the mountain ranges. This is definitely the rural area and the green heart of Chiapas and all its surrounding villages.

We made a stop at a little touristy stop where ladies were selling blouses, and bananas and there was a little restaurant and toilets. We went ahead and bought some bananas, since being hangry never quite left us, and were absolutely amazed that we received a banana for 1 peso. They were a bit smaller than the usual ones but a lot sweeter than the usual bananas.

On our way towards Palenque, we stopped at another spectacular site – Agua Azul. Theoretically the blue waters are a great way to swim near waterfalls, however after last nights rain the waters were not blue but a brown colour, rather aguas not so azules. We walked up to the waterfalls and enjoyed the lovely scenery. We even decided to hop in to the waters.

A little tip on the side: One of my fellow travellers mentioned that when she was travelling with her friend they had a 5 minutes rule. Whenever you are discussing whether or not to do an activity, you should apply the 5 minutes rule. If you have not decided whether or not to do something under 5 minutes, then you should go ahead and do it. Too much time is wasted in discussing things and going through the pros and cons instead of actually enjoying the experience. It’s a great tip and also worked real well in deciding whether or not we were going to go swimming in the brown waters or not. We did go and it was the best decision. After the long walk, the humidity and the high temperature it was the best idea ever to hop into the cold stream and swim around. We had such a blast. We had some lunch and then headed onward to another waterfall.

This waterfall however, was one that fell from a higher position and so the waterfall was more impressive. You could walk down a little jungle path and walk behind the waterfall. The sound was majestic. Such a deep rumble!

Some of us girls decided to head back to the bus when as we left the jungle path we noticed it was raining. We hadn’t noticed before since the leaves and trees of the jungle had always covered us. As we left the cover of the jungle, we noticed that it wasn’t just raining a bit but that it was pouring down like nothing else. We were absolutely drenched when we arrived back at the bus. We couldn’t stop giggling too though.