There was not much chance of sleeping last night as there were roadworks outside my room for a lot of the night. We went to the local bus station to catch an express bus to Palenque Town arriving there at 17.30 hours after a nine hour journey. The hotel for the next two nights was the Hotel Xiabalba in a very quiet part of the town and on a street full of hotels of varying standard. Ours was good. The town itself is only a stopping off place for the various ruins and activities in the area. The Spanish founded the town in 1567 but it wasn’t until 1740 that the ruins of the Mayan site at Palenque was found by Father Antonio Solís. Since then the ruins have been important to the town both culturally and economically. Just over twenty percent of indigenous residents do not speak Spanish but an indigenous language instead.
Palenque ruin is thought to have been populated from 226 BC to around 799 AD and has 1,400 documented buildings, but less than 10% of the city has been excavated. The buildings are historically significant for their extensive hieroglyphics that tell stories and show historical facts. The area is surrounded by cedar, mahogany, and sapodilla trees with some of the temples having trees an greenery growing through them.
We returned to the hotel to pick up our swimming things before going out to the Casacde Bascan, a family run swimming area on a local river, not to be confused with Agua Azul. There was no tourist attraction at Bascan other than the river, fresh and cool to swim in. In the evening I walked around the town and, with it being a Saturday, there was a concert in the town square with a local school band and a singer. I had a meal there sitting out in the open and listening to the concert. Quite a pleasant way to finish the day.
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| The Hotel Xiabalba |
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| Towel decoration on the bed |
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| Stone carving in the hotel |
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| Stone carving in the hotel |
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| Temple of the Inscriptions |
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| Temple of the Inscriptions |
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| The Palace Observation Tower |
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| The Corbel arch in a hallway at the Palace |
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| Temple of the Count |
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| Temple of the Count |
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| Temple of the Cross |
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| A building in the forest |
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| A view from the Temple of the Cross |
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| Various Stone Carvings |
We returned to the hotel to pick up our swimming things before going out to the Casacde Bascan, a family run swimming area on a local river, not to be confused with Agua Azul. There was no tourist attraction at Bascan other than the river, fresh and cool to swim in. In the evening I walked around the town and, with it being a Saturday, there was a concert in the town square with a local school band and a singer. I had a meal there sitting out in the open and listening to the concert. Quite a pleasant way to finish the day.
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| Mango on a stickn |
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| The cascades |
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