Date of Entry: February 5th 2017
Date of Writing: February 7th 2019
After a rewarding but exhausting day exploring Aguas Azul, a site which thanks to my father I’ve dreamed about visiting since I was a little kid, I don’t have any plans to slow the pace. How could I, for someone used to endless travel having 7 weeks to explore Colombia, Central America, and Mexico feels like mere hours. Today there’s another hallowed site from childhood stories: The Mayan Ruins of Palenque, as well as a place other travellers in South America have described to me as Aguas Azul without the mass tourism, The Roberto Barrios Waterfalls.
I wake up early from my lovely hostel in Palenque town and meander around a few minutes before grabbing a simple breakfast of eggs and tortillas while watching a group of 7 scarlet macaws fly above. Then it’s time for the mini bus to pick me up at the hostel to begin my “tour”. I’ve opted to just pay for the transport between the sites with the friendly company that has a kiosk outside the front of the bus station beside the best street food in town. Either way about 45 minutes later I’m leaving the bus and, after a brief explanation of the layout of the ruins from a park worker, I’m on my way to explore these ancient structures on my own.
The ruins almost immediately live up to hype, and are comparable to Tikal, and this early in the morning only starting to get crowded. It’s incredible to wander through the ancient stone structures pondering what Mayan civilization might have been like.
Palenque is a sprawling site with an awful lot to explore and it would be very easy to spend an entire day there, wandering, exploring the intricate weathered carvings that dot the structures like stars in the sky. There’s so much to see here, and, knowing I’ll be leaving shortly after 1 I keep a brisk pace going hoping to see as much as I can. The entrance cost itself is quite reasonable at 84 Pesos (6 CAD) and so I don’t feel too awful about just spending a handful of hours here. After all a short time is so much better than no time.
As the morning wears on and the ruins start to get more and more crowded I decide to take a break from the hot sun and find a tall pyramid off in an isolated corner. It’s far from the tallest and not one of the most impressive so not many tourists walk by below and none seem to bother to climb it, so I enjoy some solitude and reflection time sitting atop it under the shadow of the ancient stone. From my perch atop the pyramid I look out at the vast jungle and the ancient stones peeking out over the trees and think about what these buildings must have demanded. They were made without modern technology and strike me as one of the ultimate proofs of the strength of man and it’s desire to build. Either that or how much slave labour can help you build things.
After a while I climb down out of my solitude and head towards one of the more impressive looking complexes of temples. These ones stand practically in the jungle and are quite crowded but the climb up each huge pyramid is rewarded by the ancient worn carvings that cover the top. They look almost like something out of a child’s nightmare, impossible monsters that are somehow beautiful and terrifying all at once.
Having saved the tallest temple of the cluster for last I begin the arduous climb upwards dodging through crowds of tourist posing for selfies on the steps of this mayan wonder. I can hardly blame them for being there though, Palenque is a world class site right alongside Angkor Wat, Easter Island, Kuelap, Machu Picchu, and Tikal (where I was lucky enough to spend a night sleeping in the ruins.) as the most impressive ruins I’ve ever seen.
Up at the top /I’m rewarded not just with some more incredible carvings, but with perhaps the best view in all of Palenque, a stunning panorama of the entire site, temples the only thing breaking the thick cover of the Mexican jungle. It’s truly incredible and worth the visit for everyone there.
After maybe a half hour up there marvelling at the incredible view I am finally just about ready to head down, pausing for a few final photos when I have quite a nasty interaction with a middle aged American lady. Here’s the scene:
I’m standing still, taking my last pictures, when she passes very close behind me, squeezing through a small space between me and the next tourist. Suddenly she screams out and I turn around in time to see her throw herself to the stone ground, clutching her massive camera like Smeagol would the one ring. “You almost bumped my camera!” she screams at me in a rage filled voice.
“Ummm.. I wasn’t moving.” I mutter not quite knowing how to answer the accusation.
She picks herself up from the stone floor and tries in vain to dust off already dirty clothes with one hand while the other holds her precious camera. “Fucking young people.” She says to me before storming off in an angry huff.
I don’t have a clue what to do or say so I just let her go in her rage. People like that will always find something to be upset about. Best to let them enjoy it. And hell, at least I learned one thing, at 28 going on 29 I’m still considered young. Does it still count at 30? Since I’m writing this blog post with just an absurd delay. Let’s hope 2019 is the year I catch up on this blog.
Leaving her and her energy behind I climb down the massive steps and decide to head into the jungle to see some of the less restored temples which are basically just mounds of dirt with some stones peaking out vaguely in a pyramid shape. The more ruins I visit the more I find myself questioning how much of the beauty comes from the restoration itself and how much has actually survived all those years without our help. It can be a depressing question though so I try my best not to dwell on it.
My time is just about running out so I head towards the exit trail, passing by a waterfall which looms large in my childhood. Today it’s barely a trickle but it’s still plenty high and I think back to what was perhaps my father’s favourite travel mishap story. His somewhat reckless friend Mark was playing around atop the waterfall to impress some girls who’d been swimming there more than 30 years ago, when he lost his footing and tumbled down over the falls, crashing to the rocky ground below.
Somewhat miraculously he wasn’t dead or even deeply broken, but he was covered in cuts and scrapes, and medicine in Mexico in the 1980’s not being the greatest, when he finally did get some medical care the only ointment they had was iodine. My dad says the iodine hurt him more than the fall, and I still find myself cringing just at the word Iodine. Funny how childhood memories can grow so visceral in your mind. Needless to say I don’t tempt fate by monkeying around atop the waterfall as much as I might like to, my afternoon will be filled with better waterfalls to explore anyway, so better to not risk it.
I walk my way along the road to the museum parking lot where I’m to be picked up by another van going to Roberto Barrios waterfall. In the blazing heat I grab a popsicle thing to refresh myself and proceed to wait for about an hour and a half. So many vans come and pick up so many tourists heading back to Palenque town or onwards to Aguas Azul, but my company’s van doesn’t show up anywhere near when I said it would. Sometimes though travel is just about waiting and I end up having a nice collection of conversations with random backpackers as we wait for our busses though they always seem to get the ride before me.
Finally a frantically friendly driver pulls up, popping out of the van and explaining in Spanish that the van had broken down and they had to get another one but that he’s very sorry and promises we will all have an amazing time. It’s already half full with people but a few more climb in alongside me and soon were speeding through the Mexican jungle on curvy roads which offer a few scintillating glimpses of various other waterfalls and oddly coloured rivers cutting through the jungle.
We finally pull up to a tiny town beside the old church in it’s centre and the van comes to a bumpy halt on the now dirt trail. The driver asks us when we want to meet back at the van. It’s almost three o’clock now so we agree on 6 (I wish we’d agreed on later) . and then he points our way down to the falls through the little town.
We walk down dirt trail flanked by some local kids who guide us on our way down into the jungle on muddy trails towards the waterfalls. Roberto Barrios is smaller than Aguas Azul but it’s also mostly Mexican people there, and a lot less of them. There’s also no silly rules about where you can swim or what you can do. Everyone is left to their own devices. The waters a little greener than blue but equally as stunning and from the very first set of falls I know I made a good choice listening to the other backpackers and coming here. It’s hard not to jump in to the first pools but the local kids beckon to us to follow them, promising there’s better swimming areas further down. I’ve learned in travel to almost always trust the locals so we do as they say and they are definitely right, though before our 3 hours here are up I will swim in just about every pool there is.
The water is crisp clean and refreshing, the rocky river bed smooth and slick but still manageable as all my van mates separate and go our separate ways to explore this place with more solitude. A shirtless local teen teaches me and another backpacker how to use a crushed 2 litre coke bottle as a toboggan down some of the bigger stone drops. It’s quite an exhilarating ride which ends with an explosion of green water as you careen down into the deep pools below the final set of falls. He then tries to show us how the same coke bottle can also serve as a surfboard, standing and riding down the slick rock at breakneck speeds. Not wanting to break my neck I stick to the seated position, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun.
The three hours pass in a flash as I swim and explore the entire area. There’s no doubt that Aguas Azul is more visually impressive, but this place is more special to me. It felt like an actual Mexican place, and the freedom to roam and explore as I wished make it such a better experience. I’m full of regret at 5:45 when I start the hike back up to the van where our friendly driver waits with the same manic energy as before and speeds us back to Palenque. I grab a quick but massive dinner with my friend at the taco stall but then head back to the hostel to grab my bag from storage and head to the bus station.
I have a night bus to catch onwards to Merida, and like sand in the hourglass I can feel my time in Mexico slipping away. But I’ll be back someday, to explore more hidden corners and hopefully to return to the waterfalls and ruins of Palenque with my family alongside me. One thing is for sure, my dad was right about not skipping Chiapas, and the two twelve plus hour night buses are a small price to pay for such beauty.
***If in Palenque I do highly recommend using Kim Tours outside the bus station, they negotiated the prices with me, the drivers were kind (if not always punctual) . and I’d happily use there services again.
