Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 59

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 59

Mexico 

3/1/09  - Palenque – Ruins And Jungle Walk

The air is heavy with humidity and I am one of the few who is enjoying it to any degree.  We wake refreshed and giddy over the planned activities for the next several days.  Instead, we are directed to immediately break camp and move to the regular parking lot.  Gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe, gripe.  Then Sam has something to say.  Didn’t matter, we moved quickly and efficiently, then griped some more.  Just as the last rig was re-set up, we were directed onto the tour bus.

Ruins

We got on the bus, settle in and are whisked off to the Pelenque National Park that includes 1771 hectares of Chiapa Jungle.  (That is a LOT!) The ruins at this site are impressive.  The first fishing village here started at about 100 BC, and it was a major power from 600 to 800 AD, covering the Chiapa and Tobasco states. Enough info.  Temples, temples, temples, temples, altars, pyramids, skull houses, and TOMBS!! BOY, does Indiana Sam fit in now! A man’s tomb was found in 1994 inside the pyramid, in a smaller temple building.  He was wearing a crown of green jade.  Not all of the ruins have been through the archeological process and are still in the jungle – right there!!  Modern satellite ‘rays’ have been able to pick out the ruins left to be excavated and it really is something to see.  Sam and I climbed up a tomb of a woman. The tomb was red due to some really good reason (I think it was mercury).  The steps were easy to climb, but getting down was very difficult, as they were so steep and small. Many people offered to help me get down the face of that tomb.  Sam climbed the pyramid and I sneakily offered to again take pictures of his every step.  I only missed a few.  Once on top of this pyramid, Sam walked inside.  Our guide was willing to take us on a night tour of the tomb to where the man was found (and still is) for just a small extra fee.  After filling our minds and wearing down our shoes on the ruins, we went on.

Pyramid

We saw new items in the artisan area, including paintings/burned etchings into leather and painted feathers.  The painting involved whole historic scenes.  Wow!

More Ruins - No Not Us!

It was time for our guide to take us into the jungle to see the ruins not yet excavated, and to simply walk and ‘feel’ the jungle.  We had a young boy acting as tail-gunner on this trek. I don’t think they trusted ours in this situation.  We walked just a few feet away from the main ruin area and quickly entered the “jungle”. Sam and I lag behind with our chaperone. We are whelmed.  We look up and you do not see sky, only the undersides of the tops of the trees and the parasite plants, shrubs, flowers and hanging vines/roots.  The terrain is pretty hilly and very rocky.  That is when my eyes go back to the normal position in their sockets and I hear the information that the rocks are part of the ruins.  Soon we feel a few drops of moisture, and the guide tells us it’s raining.  I do not believe him.  I am from Oregon and I know rain when I see it.  We walk through streambed areas that have trickling water in between the deepest, hidden stones.  I see a more cut-looking rock, recognize it as one of the ruin stones lying beside the path.  Roots of trees have penetrated it and pushed it out from the others.  I ask the guide how many lifetimes I would have to spend in lockup if I took it.  He laughed and said none, and told me to take it.  I was able to break the roots going though the rock and now have it.  Apparently, when the rocks are so misshapen, they cannot use it to restore the ruin site. Instead modern materials will be used and marked, so you will know that they are not the originals.  I am happy that I am not facing even one lifetime in jail.

Guide Pointing Out Hidden Ruins

We hear howling monkeys, way high in the canopy, but cannot see them. (They sound like roaring ‘cats’.)  The same thing with the toucans.  (They sound like frogs way up there.)  Sam swings on one of the ‘Tarzan’ vines, then had to do it again, as the picture did not take the first time.  The youngster had to outdo Sam and climbed a tree with lots of vines. I was barely able to keep Sam on the ground.  We continued the climb and the guide came upon some food used by natives many, many, years ago.  We saw the home of the food source, then the food source.  Volunteers were summoned.  Yep! Sam was the only one in line.  After I assured him I would refrain from kissing him for only 24 hours, he ate one or maybe several.  You will have to ask him what termites taste like.  He tells me they tasted like carrots. I may not want to eat carrots for a while. 

Termite Buffet

The rain really starts to pour and I can see and feel and identify the drops myself.  It is raining.  The little trickle places have turned into streams and we are not walking a nicely groomed path – we are in the jungle. We see parts of temples with some carvings jutting out of a place in the ground where a tree has become uprooted.  The plants, animal sounds and just the experience of experiencing the jungle was fabulous. But, we were getting wet, walking/climbing up and down, was getting hard for everyone.  We headed for the road.  We exited the jungle about two hours after entering and it seemed like only a few minutes.  Even with the warm rain.

Not Sam Climbing In Dark Jungle

We grab all our stuff, enter the bus and are delivered at our trailer.  When we get there, we are thankful that they made us move.  The grassy area we had been in had turned into a muddy mess.  I hate wasting gripes.  I should be learning something here.  In the middle of the night, the howling monkeys that live in the trees in and near the hotel started howling.  We thought one had gotten on the roof, but they don’t come down that often.  I finally was able to fall asleep.  Not so much for Sam.  Probably something eating at him. From the inside probably.