Palenque....land of the Maya

In our  niche

Archaeological site of Palenque

We started out on Thursday morning with a guided tour of Palenque ruins and the jungle around the ruins. As this is not tourist season, we felt like we were the only ones there. Our guide enjoyed telling us stories of his theories on the disappearance of the Mayas. We need to do much more research on this subject...they were so advanced in many ways, yet the royalty disappeared. These photos are only a sampling of the many I took. The accessible buildings are only a drop in the bucket of the number that are still  not excavated all around the jungle.

Palenque

These mushroooms were growing.
I love the design elements

One of many relief sculptures

Misol-ha

Richard at the bottom of Misol-ha

Afterwards we continued our tour of the area of Misol-ha and Agua Azul...both waterfalls, river and beautiful natural parks. In Agua Azul we took out our drawing pads while eating grilled plantains (large bananas) and french fries. Many of the children gathered around to watch us draw and paint. This is another way to connect directly with people as they are usually fascinated by catching a scene on paper.

The following day was an adventure to two other archaeological sites... Yaxchilan and Bonampak. We had debated whether to do these as they are really off the beaten track and take a long time to get there but they are really worth seeing. Again we were virtually the only ones around ... just a few small groups of tourists. We were 8 people in a van...mostly Mexicans except for a woman from Sweden (who lives in SMA) and her sister visiting from Sweden. We always enjoy the camraderie of a small group on adventures together. In order to get Yaxchilan we drove for 2 1/2 hours and then a boat ride down the river to the site (45 minutes). There were about 30 students at the top of Yaxchilan who were studying the mayan glyphs, analyzing the various parts that are available to see in this remote river front site. Each of the symbols represent a word or several words. The designs are amazing.

Yaxchilan

Mayan glyphs

Yaxchilan

Amazing large trees at Yaxchilan

A howler monkey

On the walk out of this site we were lucky enough to see one of the howler monkeys....in fact there were several of them. The sound they make is loud and very strange. We had been hearing them without seeing them. This was a highlight of this afternoon for all of us. Look up howler monkey on Utube if you want to hear their sound.
Then we headed to the site of Bonampak, a smaller site but known for the amazing murals on the walls that were done over 1200 years ago. I captured a few on photo here but many more still on the camera. Through these murals they are able to determine much about the culture of the people.

Murals at Bonampak

Bonampak

Bonampak

Above a door entry at Bonampak

Our hotel in Palenque
Maya Tulipanes...a day of rest

After two amazing hot humid days in the jungle, we have a rest day here in Palenque before heading back tomorrow to San Miguel de Allende. We have had a joyous and full adventure in this land of the Maya. It is a part of Mexico that is so very different than all the others we have visited and we are grateful for this opportunity to travel together and experience new worlds of the past and present.

Once again, thank you to all for traveling and sharing our adventures with us. I know many enjoy this blog, but truly, it is my gift to myself to capture in photo and words some of my memories so I can revisit whenever I want. Love from the 2wo of us.