Palenque

Whilst wondering round the museum at the entrance to Palenque ruins we spotted a sentence on one of the displays which stated that Palenque is the wettest place in Mexico.  We believe it!  Luckily the frequent rain showers (and constant overnight rainstorm) didn't interfere too much with our sightseeing though.  We spent an enjoyable few hours on Friday exploring the ruins and climbing up and down hundreds of steps (Claire's calves aren't really enjoying the post-marathon recovery for some reason!).  The ruins were even more stuck in the middle of the jungle than Uxmal, and the Indiana Jones feel was becoming more prominent.

The ruins at Palenque

View from our hammock!

 On Saturday we headed off at some silly time in the morning to get a bus out to Bonampak and Yaxchilan.  After pausing en-route for a tasty Mexican style buffet breakfast, we arrived at Bonampak and went off to explore the famous Mayan paintings.  Then we headed for Yaxchilan, which involved a boat trip in which it is very likely that we strayed into Guatemalan water.  We survived though and spent a lovely couple of hours wondering up and down yet more stairs in the ruins, but this time with the added bonus of being surrounded by howler monkeys.  After a late lunch we then headed back to Palenque to get on the second of our night buses.

Paintings at Bonampak

A howler monkey, if you look closely (a bit like our wild orang-utan photo from Borneo!)

 

Claire climbing up more stairs at Yaxchilan