Day 11 21.07.15
This day was “lleno” / full with Mexican Mayan ruins. We had breakfast at the hotel and then took taxis out to the ruins of Palenque. This is the advantage of travelling in a group – there are always between 3 and 4 people to share the money for transport with. The ride to the ruins wasn’t long and soon we arrived in the depths of the jungle. Like always there were hoards of street vendors selling everything from textiles to water to special paintings painted on leather.
As we got there quite early there was no cue and so we got through to the actual site quickly. We also got ourselves a guide who would take us through the ruins and would tell us about the facts and the myths surrounding the ruins. Unfortunately, there was a stronger focus on the mythical part than on the factual part.
The ruins were impressive and it is just fascinating to see so many stone pyramids in the middle of the jungle, and knowing that these were built centuries ago with hardly any means to do so. These civilisations were so highly developed and that so many years ago that it is strange to see them disappear so instantly.
We climbed around the Mayan ruins and even got to walk inside a pyramid to look at a tomb of the “red queen” or as our guide would say, “bullshit, she wasn’t a queen, the DNA was definitely male, all the scientists were wrong”. Walking through these small passageways was quite eerie and made me feel slightly claustrophobic.
Apparently there are several tunnels underneath the pyramids and underneath the jungle joining the pyramids together. They way they are constructed – apparently is based on high astronomy and mathematical theories. “the holy number seven” and “the holy number nine” as our guide would say. (Depending on how many steps these pyramids had :) ).
I absolutely loved the jungle. The sounds you could hear of the insects chirping away, the howler monkeys in the depths of the jungle and we even (according to our guide) heard a Tucan. Quite impressive. The only thing that dented the experience was the absolute heat and the nerve-racking humidity. We were all sweating profoundly when we left the site. Even though we arrived early the sun soon caught up with us and pretty much chased us around the ruins. Only ever in the jungle itself a little breeze made it bearable.
Our guide was great entertainment. Apparently first the Chinese, then the Hindus, then the Greek, and then the Egyptians came to South America, as all the symbols of these civilisations can be found in Palenque. I think most of the symbols he thought were from different cultures were free for ones own interpretation. I cannot imagine however, how all these civilisations managed to go to a different country and have no recollection of that in their history and in their recordings. I don’t mind a bit of mythical input, but please don’t have it be that far fetched. A more interesting question – how did most of the indigenous people (nearly 80%) in all of South America disappear and die 600 years before the Spanish arrive? I am not 100% sure about the disappearing; I will have to read up on that when I get home.
We jumped onto a small bus that acted as our taxi and drove back to the hotel. Here it was clear, that some pool time was absolutely necessary. We first went to have lunch at the same place where the pool was, and then just cheekily asked whether some pool time was included in our meal. The waiter answered yes, for only 3 hours though. Great! We would have paid but even better. We ordered some drinks to the pool and just enjoyed life.
Before our first overnight trip I had managed to break my sandals. I had always looked for some time and a shoemaker to fix the shoes and Palenque worked out well for that. My shoes were fixed and apparently even really quickly. Thanks again to our guide who took them with him on his way into town and got them fixed!
Later on in the afternoon I also received back my money belt- completely in tact and with all the money inside the paper bag. Again a lesson learned on not to leave my stuff behind!
At the moment I am always carrying about a plastic bag with all the souvenirs and the alcohol I bought from the various stations (Tequila, Mezcal, some special Maghay Liquor) and this bag is getting heavier and heavier and unfortunately more and more holes. I therefore decided it was time to get rid of this bag and – no not as you might think and drink it all – but to send them back to Europe. I headed out to town to find a postal office hoping they would also be selling cartons and some bubble wrap. How wrong I was. I found the postal office quickly after asking some people on the street to point me in the right direction. The man from the postal office told me where I could get a carton or better said the packaging and where I would get some paper to make it look more like a package. The place for the carton was a supermarket and I got an empty fruit loops carton. Oh yeah, did I mention – for free. I then went to look for the papilleria the paper shop. I found that too and went ahead in wrapping the bottles up in bubble wrap, getting the carton up to speed with tape and using some more bubble wrap and tape to get the box shut. Meanwhile I started casually talking to the owner of the paper shop, which happens quite often when they hear a weird Spanish accent that they can’t quite put their finger on. Apparently it is hilarious when I say twelve (once) in Spanish – I can’t say why… Anyway, I was talking to the man and he told me a bit about his life, what he and his family were vending, and also producing themselves. They make their own mix of powdery drink. It is called Tlaxcali and the other mixture is Horchata. They are both powders that can be mixed up with milk or just plain water and will then in the case of tlaxcali receive a reddish colour and for the horchata a more brown colour. Both these mixtures are a sweet breakfast drink. The Tlaxcali – the only one I got to taste, tastes like a hot chocolate, without chocolate, with a lot of cinnamon and another unknown flavour to me. They make it straight out of their house based on an old recipe of the owners’ grandmother. I enjoyed it so I opened the package again and threw in two bags of Horchata and Tlaxcali.
After closing it shut again, we wrapped some paper around the package to make it look more like a package and added the address.
Meanwhile I was still talking to the owner of the shop, who then took me on an unexpected walkthrough of his house. He showed me his family, the Tlaxcali production, his living room, his shrine, the clothing shop of his sister, the supermarket of his father and so on and so on it went. I think I spent about 1,5 hours there going on to 2 hours. I enjoyed the conversation, however near the end the conversation was rather one sided and I was keen to send away my package before it go to late, we were going to dinner and the night bus was leaving. So after talking a whole lot about economics and politics and living standards etc. (the highlights about being German apparently) I managed to cut myself loose and send away my package. It was surprisingly cheap – I only paid about 1400 pesos for the delivery of a 5 kg package to Europe. Not bad. I hope it gets there. After 8 days I will be able to have a look at where my parcel is at online. That will be on the 29th of June, I hope I remember.
I went back to have dinner and as we still had time on our hands decided to head back to the room that was still available to us, enjoy the air conditioning and wait until it was 10:30 and time to head to the overnight bus station.
Now there are two types of overnight busses. There might be more but so far I have only travelled with two different ones. The one from the first overnight trip was ok. It was quite cold but we were prepared for that the second time. The first bus had large seats where you could properly curl up and lie on your side and therefore get in some proper sleep. The second bus however was a whole nother deal. The seats were smaller, not quite reclineable, the driver would turn the A/C on and off and on off, so you would be cold and would be putting on your sweatshirt and the next second you would be too warm since the driver turned the A/C back off. Of the 10 hours trip, I think I only slept about an hour straight. The rest was constantly waking up and not getting comfortable. I know that the first bus must have been more expensive than the second, however especially when you are doing activities after the bus ride on the next day, then it is better to spend the money on an upgraded first class bus, than to not have hardly any sleep but to have saved money. At least that’s my opinion.
