I have arrived in Hell. I have spend a day in Hell. Its still Hell.
During my glorious 5 hour bus ride I was able to watch the alpine forest of Chiapas slowly transform into a thick and gnarled rainforest. I dont know whats caused this sudden eloquence, but as long as its here I'm gonna take advantage of it. I stepped off the bus wearing my thick sweater and was hit right away with a repressive layer of humidity wrapped in an abominable heat which still hasnt left my side.
See, there are 2 Palenques. The first is an artificial town, erected recently to support the flow of tourists to the second Palenque, the impressive Mayan ruins. Of course, everyone comes to the fomer to go to the latter. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the fact that it was dark, or the fact that I'd just left the picturesque village of San Cristobal. Maybe it was all 3. But it is honestly the ugliest little town I have ever seen. Just existing in it makes you sweat. Walking down the street at night, sweat accumulating at my brows I searched for a hotel. Ugly ugly ugly. I found a hostel, yep, you guessed it, ugly. I took a shower, and halfway through drying off I wasnt sure if it was water or sweat I was drying. I went to look around the town. Ugly. The main square- ugly, artificial and dingy. I went straight to sleep.
This morning I set off for the second Palenque- arguably the most impressive Mayan ruins in Mexico. I'm not arguing. They were amazing. The heat was still there, I was swimming in my clothes, with the sun beating down on my head. I didn't care. There I met José from Monterrey and we set about exploring the ruins. I'll add photos when I get a chance to download them, but they had these great temples rising from the layered rainforest, and then you could take little side paths to unexcavated ruins which were left as they had been for thousands of years- enveloped in nature.
During my glorious 5 hour bus ride I was able to watch the alpine forest of Chiapas slowly transform into a thick and gnarled rainforest. I dont know whats caused this sudden eloquence, but as long as its here I'm gonna take advantage of it. I stepped off the bus wearing my thick sweater and was hit right away with a repressive layer of humidity wrapped in an abominable heat which still hasnt left my side.
See, there are 2 Palenques. The first is an artificial town, erected recently to support the flow of tourists to the second Palenque, the impressive Mayan ruins. Of course, everyone comes to the fomer to go to the latter. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was the fact that it was dark, or the fact that I'd just left the picturesque village of San Cristobal. Maybe it was all 3. But it is honestly the ugliest little town I have ever seen. Just existing in it makes you sweat. Walking down the street at night, sweat accumulating at my brows I searched for a hotel. Ugly ugly ugly. I found a hostel, yep, you guessed it, ugly. I took a shower, and halfway through drying off I wasnt sure if it was water or sweat I was drying. I went to look around the town. Ugly. The main square- ugly, artificial and dingy. I went straight to sleep.
This morning I set off for the second Palenque- arguably the most impressive Mayan ruins in Mexico. I'm not arguing. They were amazing. The heat was still there, I was swimming in my clothes, with the sun beating down on my head. I didn't care. There I met José from Monterrey and we set about exploring the ruins. I'll add photos when I get a chance to download them, but they had these great temples rising from the layered rainforest, and then you could take little side paths to unexcavated ruins which were left as they had been for thousands of years- enveloped in nature.
Walking back towards the bus stop we followed another side path and found a beautiful waterfall which created little pools of water that fed each other all the way downstream. So we decided to relax there for a while, our legs in the water, staring up at the green canopy above.
And now I'm back in Hell. My bus to Campeche leaves at midnight (oh joy) and I've got 7 hours to waste in this festering little town which doesnt even have a bench I can rest my sticky self on. Bla.
1 comment:
NO bench??! ahhhh... only through that last sentence could i truly appreciate what you must be going through...
my sympathy is with you, my dear friend.
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