Hi guys!
Yesterday was absolutely amazing. We left the hotel and rode in the rain with Jesús around 9:15 so we could meet Moe (my Japanese friend) at the restaurant at 9:30. When we arrived we had breakfast (I had fruit, yogurt and granola), met Moe and her mother there and then left for the ruins of Palenque!
It was only a few minutes to the park entrance so Moe rode on the back of Jesus’s bike (with his helmet) and I rode on the back of dad’s bike. The ride there was a lot prettier than yesterday’s ride.
Even though we only were only riding for a few minutes, it was pure jungle everywhere with huge trees, moss on everything and mild flooding (it had been raining for the past few days). The dew on the plants made them sparkle in the morning sun which was super awesome… I never wake up early enough to see dew!
We pulled up to an entrance-like building with only a couple people working there. The speed bumps forced us to stop and pay for wrist bands to enter Palenque National Park proving we hadn’t snuck in. We rode for a few more minutes up a slippery paved twisty road and then parked the bikes and entered the ruins with a water bottle, wallet, park passes and emergency tootsie rolls because sometimes, you just need a tootsie roll. Moe and I had eaten them all after only about half an hour… and they were delicious.
When you first enter Palenque, all you can see are big trees and vines covering the entry and the ruins that haven’t been uncovered yet. Once you’ve walked through the entry and up the path, you still can’t see anything because of all the trees obscuring your vision so you can only see a few feet into the thick jungle. There was a big field with nicely cut grass and the field was surrounded by big, worn-down but amazing temples.
There were three temples in the main clearing. One of them had a huge tower four floors high and a mini football field to play a game called teachtili which is basically soccer without hands or feet with a hard rubber ball.
The second building was a pyramid with stairs leading up to the top but it was all closed off 🙁 and the third building was a tomb! It held the famous Red Queen!
We started at the dirt building and snaked around through the temple. Most of it was still intact and it was awesome to step on stone that was previously trodden by royalty and people who lived over 1,000 years ago!
Everything had been painted red, their sacred colour, many years ago but most of the paint was gone over time but some of it remained intact! There was a gravel pathway that lead us through the winding paths to more temples and ruin sites. It was amazing!
One of my favourite parts about the whole idea of it was that the temples had been built voluntarily, not by slaves like Egypt’s pyramids. Many of the temples had small carvings on the side of them, stating good spells to keep demonic presence away from their homes. Instead of an organized church, there was a big rock that was only about a foot off the ground that people could come and pray to. I found this pretty awesome because then they wouldn’t have to worry about missing church!
We explored all the temples we could before circling back to the first few. On the way back to the entrance of Palenque there were all these vendors spread out near the treeline and we stopped at one.
I was drawn to one of the artists, named Alejandro Lazo Figueroa, who is from Palenque. He was selling these beautiful bracelets using stones that had been sacred to the Mayans. Moe and I got matching ones with turquoise stones to show protection under dangerous measures and he made a beautiful tiny sculpture for my journey for me!
We had a lot of fun at Palenque and we were sad to leave but it was almost four in the afternoon. We had to get Moe back to her Mom and us back for dinner because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast seven hours ago and we were really hungry.
Moe and I shared a vegetarian pizza before we went back to her little room that she and her Mom were staying in. We watched authentic anime (my favourite thing EVER; not that I understood any of it…. it was all in Japanese) and shared an orange before leaving to go EXPLORE the unknown!
The hotel property was MASSIVE! It was pitch black out and every half kilometre we would see a light in the distance that we would walk towards. We were laughing and having a good time and I was giving her a mock speech on how there were probably jaguars and tigers and quicksand ahead and how that was nothing to afraid of! We were telling each other fake stories about our first time we rode a lion bareback and stuff like that when we heard an ominous growl from a few metres in front of us… Then rapid barking and howling.
I have never run so fast in my life. Ever. I was pretty proud of myself that I didn’t hit a tree or fall over or anything in our mad, dark, wordless dash away from the dog that, in our minds, will always be “The Rabid Dog.” On the bright side we found a path after a while of wandering and followed it (the wrong way) for a few minutes, still laughing in fear, before we came to the main highway. We turned around and went right back to the beginning of the trail and followed signs pointing us to her hotel room.
When we arrived, Moe translated the tale of The Rabid Dog into Japanese for her mom while I sat back and watched more anime. I learned how to properly sharpen a pencil with an exacto knife and how to properly eat a tomato.
After this I said goodbye to both Moe and her Mom before leaving on the bike back to the hotel with Dad and Jesús. When we got back we went to sleep because we knew we had a really early day the next morning! Which was this morning (day 23…the LONGEST day…) but I need sleep so more updates tomorrow…
~Holly J
P.S. I just read all the comments on my last blog post! Thanks I LOVE them all!
