Ruins, Ruins, Ruins.

On my last night in Xpujil, a group of Mexicans kept me up half the night with their loud antics outside my cabana, so I had to put in my earplugs. Unfortunately, this caused me to not hear my alarm in the morning, and subsequently miss my 6am bus to Palenque. I then spent the rest of the day sitting in various bus stations in small dusty towns on the highway, all in an effort to make up for my missed morning bus.

"Only pull the goatee." Love the translation.

I finally made it to Palenque the next morning, and immediately hit the ruins there. I ran into a group of Israelis (who are everywhere in Central America and Mexico by the way), and we decided to get a tour guide. Our guide was really good, super funny, and spoke a few words of Hebrew, which really made my new Israeli friends laugh. He brought us into the jungle on the outskirts of the park to show us how much is yet to be uncovered, including this entrance to a house. So much to dig up, so little money. I say they should just bring in the bulldozers.

The small temple beside the Temple of Inscriptions holds the crypt of the Red Queen, as they call her. Apparently they found her mummified body all blinged out, with a jade mask, and tons of ornate jewelry. That's straight up OG.

Our guide had some great visual material to help us through the tour. This was a big help, especially when the Israelis I was with asked him if the Mayans believed in Jesus Christ. Enough said.

It was a little hot that day.

There were a ton of groundskeepers working on the park when we were there, some of which offered "champi" tours... The jungles of Palenque grow some powerful magic mushrooms apparently, and while the prospect of my first encounter with mushrooms being in a World Heritage site was tempting, the thought of jumping off a pyramid because I thought I could fly quickly made up my mind against the idea.

The next day I booked a tour to Yaxchilan and Bonampak, both of which straddle the Mexico/Guatemala border. Normally I would have done them on my own, but they are far out of the way, are a pain to get to, and are found on one of the most dangerous parts of the border. Soon enough, we were cruising down the border river on our way to Yaxchilan.

Not much to describe here. Lots of really dark rooms with bats, and some great stone carvings. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

My first tarantula encounter. Powerful.

Next on the list was Bonampak. Although the ruins here are tiny compared to pretty much any other site in the area (including Xpujil), the main draw is the set of famous preserved murals here. In no other mayan site are there such well preserved paintings. Quite awe-inspiring actually.

After a long day, we made our way back to Palenque. The next morning I would head off to San Cristobal for some much needed R&R after a week of running from city to city, sitting in bus stations, and climbing up and down ancient ruins. Life is tough here sometimes, but I just remind myself that somebody's got to do it, and it might as well be me...