Palenque, Chiapas

Sorry about the huge gap guys, but sometimes it is just too hard to find both the time to write and access to internet! We are in San Cristobal de las Casas right now, after travelling for a few days around and through Zapatista territory and the Lacandon jungle in southern Chiapas (jungles, waterfalls, rivers and lakes) and are headed for the border with Guatemala in the morning to meet Eva and Mary at Lake Atitlan. Here is what we have been up to for the past few days, Palenque first... Perdon por la demora pero hemos estado sin tiempo y sin internet. Ahora estamos en San Cristobal de las Casas, despues de haber pasado por territorio Zapatista y la selva Lacandona en el sur de Chiapas. Maniana, vamos para Guatemala a encontrarnos con Eva y Mary en el Lago Atitlan. Por ahora, esto es lo que hemos hecho en la ultima semana. Primero, Palenque...
The day we left Bacalar we drove most of the day. We woke up to the noisy trucks on the highway, said good bye to our friends from Germany/Holland/Spain (that we met up with at the cenote azul the day before) and started the long drive to Escarcega. In Escarcega, we had planned to find a place to eat, an internet café, a laundry and a place to stay and even a mechanic, but after we had a few experiences that were giving us bad memories of Jackson, Mississippi we decided to just keep going for three more hours to Palenque.
We saw the scenery change again to more tropical forest while we crossed into Chiapas. The military stopped and inspected the car 3 times that day, and one police guy in Escarcega asked us to “sell” him our (broken) solar flashlight and we told him that we needed it. After we told him that, he just let us go without an inspection or anything. The Lonely Planet book said that 4 km towards the ruins there is a little place that has campsites and cabins in the middle of a tropical jungle called “El Panchan” so we headed there and were pleasantly surprised that it is a nice little traveler enclave. We thought we would be there for one night and ended up staying for four days! It really is in the middle of a jungle and, mixed with tourists (mostly backpackers) and cabins, noisy howler monkeys, a wild boar in an enclosure (apparently they are a symbol of protection here), parrots, geckoes and lots of cats and dogs it is a very strange and wonderful place. We even saw a large basilisk lizard which made Ariel’s day!
We are camped out close to the main restaurant called Don Mucho’s that has really good Italian-Mexican food (we honestly had just been talking about when would be the next time we would eat ravioli, thinking it would not be until Argentina) and they had fresh homemade pasta – and it was really good! They also have great live music starting at 8:30 every night. Ariel was commenting that it was strange that even the music selection seemed to come from our own ipod (lots of Silvio Rodriquez and los Fabulosos Cadillac and even Andres Calamaro!) Gustavo looked like he had died and gone to heaven. It was raining all night long so it was really nice to sleep with the sound of drops on the westy pop top and there was no wind because of the giant trees. The next day it rained most of the day, so we took advantage and went in to town to find a mechanic to do a tune-up (especially the brakes before we head into the mountains again) and an internet place. We lucked out with the owner of the mechanic shop, Felipe Casanova, who gave us lots of advice about a great route to Guatemala which he says is the jewel of Chiapas. He also told us about this great little place to eat close to the square, Dona Flor’s, which doesn’t even have a sign. You go in and sit, basically in her living room, and she serves you some really good and cheap homemade food. The only other people in there were locals having their lunch. It was great. We checked out a market in the square of products from Oaxaca, and bought some green pipian mole, and some dark black mole to have on hand. The next day the sun finally came out, so after Mateo got a lesson in bracelet making from an artesano we met from Guanajuato called el Chango (now he wants to be an artesano too), and a birthday breakfast including a nice cappuccino, we went to the ruins. At Chango’s recommendation, we took a back route through the jungle, and really enjoyed the site, which is nestled into the mountain but almost overgrown with jungle. Unfortunately it was Sunday, which meant that it was really quite crowded, but it was still amazing to see all the waterfalls, the buildings that are very well-preserved, and the irrigation system that the Mayans had worked out. At the museum they have a lot of information about the ancient Maya that helped us to better interpret the site, and King Pakal’s tomb which was quite impressive. We talked to an artesano there and found out that 7 km through the jungle, behind the Temple of the Jaguar, there is a Zapatista village and we were going to try and visit it but I (Allison) was feeling a bit too sick to make the trek (long story, but I think Moctezuma is having his revenge with me!) Mateo bought a nice little bow and arrow set made of gum tree, bamboo, stone and feathers from one of the young Mayan guys who comes from that town. On our way back to El Panchan, who should we see cycling down the road but Philippe! That day in town he had met up with a couple from Spain staying here who are cycling through Mexico, and who Gustavo had happened to mention him to. They put two and two together and they told him we were staying here and he had left a note on the westy for us. In the evening they, Miriam and Sergio, invited us to their palapa for a fire and an impromptu collaborative dinner – they had even bought a little chocolate cake (with a candle and everything) in town that day to celebrate my birthday! The kids hung out in the hammock, played mandolin and recorder, and Miriam tried to show Mateo how to play the flute. The next day we took the westy in to have the gas tank issue fixed, and meanwhile, Felipe invited us to his home to have lunch with him and his wife Lorena and their two small daughters, Andrea and Camila. We couldn’t believe how hospitable they were to us, feeding us lunch and then taking us on a short trek to a fresh water swimming hole that they knew about. It was a magical swim, and then on the walk back to Felipe’s truck we heard the howlers going crazy in the mountains as the sun was setting. We also couldn’t believe that after four hours of work to fix the gas tank, they only charged us $26! Felipe and his family have done some traveling, including a year in China (the girls speak Mandarin and tried to teach us how to count to 10), and a few months ago they drove from Montreal to Palenque, mostly in a school bus that they bought and made into a home-made RV. Hopefully we will see them in Punta del Diablo some day…One Tuesday we decided that it is time to leave el Panchan (even el Chango had finally sold enough bracelets (mostly to Mateo) to buy his bus ticket to Tulum) but we woke up to pouring rain. Miriam and Sergio wanted to leave too, but it was going to be hard for them on their bikes. After deciding to follow Felipe’s advice and not go the steep and winding route that everyone goes to San Cristobal de las Casas, we offered to give them a lift, at least until the rain stops. We ended up traveling all six of us together with the bikes strapped to the top of the westy, through the Lacandon jungle along the border with Guatemala and then up to San Cristobal for the past five days and having an amazing time!
El dia que salimos de bacalar manejamos todo el dia. Les dijimos adios a nuestros amigos de alemania, espania, holanda y empezamos el viaje a escarcega. Cuando llegamos alli, buscamos un lugar para comer, lavar ropa, quedarnos y un mecanico. Despues de unas situaciones que nos daban recuerdos malos de jackson mississippi, decidimos ir hasta palenque.
En palenque, nos estamos quedando en un lugar llamado “el panchan” que esta en el medio de la selva donde hay monos haulladores, jabalies, lagartos basilicos, guecos y muchos gatos y perros que lo hacen ser un lugar muy raro y lindo.
La primera noche que llegamos, comimos en un restaurant llamado “Don Mucho’s” . Justo veniamos hablando en el viaje de comer unos ricos ravioles, y pensamos que tendriamos que esperar hasta llegar a Argentina, pero para sorpreza de Ariel y Allison , la pasta estaba buenisima!
Al otro dia fuimos a las ruinas, y aunque Allison no se sentia muy bien las pudimos recorrer todas. La verdad es que las fotos tal vez puedan explicar un poco mejor lo que yo no podria hacer ni con mil palabras!
En Palenque llevamos a la combi a un taller mecanico. Alli, conocimos a Felipe Casanova, su esposa Lorena e hijas, Andrea y Camila, que no solo nos ayudaron con la camioneta, si no que tambien nos invitaron a comer a su casa, y con el y sus hijas fuimos a un rio impresionante, donde nadamos un buen rato, y al volver escuchamos el ahullar de los monos. En el Panchan, tambien conocimos a un monton de gente, y Mateo aprendio a hacer collares y pulseras con el Chango. Tambien conocimos a una pareja de espanioles que estan vijando en bici. Con ellos, y el Chango festejamos el cumple de Allison, cocinando juntos y tocando musica. Despues de volver de las ruinas, nos quedamos mas que asombrados y felices de volver a ver a Phillippe andando en su bici. De mas esta decir que nos cagamos de risa cuando nos vimos. Tres veces en menos de un mes, y sin planearlo! Fue dificil dejar Palenque, y sobre todo el Panchan, con sus monos, gatos, perros y lagartijas, y jabalies, pero lo que pensamos que iba a ser una noche, resulto siendo 4.