I'm sticking my head down a dark hole in the ground. Thick vines grow around the ancient rocks of the Palenque ruins and the tunnel in front of me has a dank, musty odor about it. I have my LED key chain flashlight out and I'm trying to get an idea of where the passage goes. Behind me, the thick jungle continues its slow creeping growth over the ruins. Birds screech and lizards scuttle about. My little flashlight seems to give off as much light as a single match. There is a staircase that goes down for five or six steps and then the narrow tunnel disappears into the gloom. The stones of the passage are damp with moisture.
"This is probably as close as I'll ever come to being Indiana Jones," I tell myself. I take a few steps into the tunnel and hear a fluttering. Then the bat flies directly at my face.
Later, when I try to explain, Jen tells me, "Really, you have no need to apologize." She pauses. "For screaming like a little girl."
* * *
The day before, Jen and I took a seven-hour bus ride south, out of the Yucatan Peninsula, to where the mountains start in the state of Chiapas. At this point is Palenque - the site of a former huge Mayan City. Today, the bones of the city remain. Towering pyramids, palaces, and temples rise out of the jungle in various states of restoration and decay.
Jen and I checked into El Palanch - a backpacker haven consisting of four different cabaña and camping areas set in the jungle about 2 km from the ruins. Most people who arrive here have huge backpacks and unwashed clothes; in short, they look a lot like Jen and I.
The place really is in a jungle. The vegetation is much thicker than the forests of the Yucatan. Huge trees, bamboo groves, flowers, and other plants cover the entire place. Thick green vines and algae grow over the pool that we saw on the website for the place. Paths wind their way through the green growth and bubbling streams to the different cabañas. Where the trails meet is Don Muchos - the literal and metaphysical center of this little cosmic camp.
Don Muchos is an outdoor restaurant with live music and a wise-cracking staff. Jen and I are drinking cold Montejo beer and eating a pizza when Chris, who we met in Campeche, comes over to say hello. He has spent the day exploring some nearby waterfalls. We agree to meet in the morning and go to the ruins together.
The next day, we catch a "combi", a little microbus that drives a fixed route and picks up people along the way, and are at the ruins when they open. The ruins of Palenque are amazing for their size and their location. They are nestled up against the mountains and under a jungle. The archaeologists have restored much of the larger buildings but have left a lot of the ruins in a natural state of decay. The jungle encroaches upon the buildings and thick fichus trees and vines sprout from walls of what was homes and temples built along the steep slope of a hill. Leaf cutter ants crawl along their own highways carrying green specks from the trees to holes in the stones. Creeks and waterfalls flow through the site.
Amongst the ruins are a number of dark passageways that go from one level of a building to another or underground. Chris and I check out every tunnel we find. They are often filled with bats, which when we watch them closely, I cannot help but think they are cute (except when they fly straight at one's face) with their small faces and delicate looking bodies.
We talk about what the city must have looked like back when it was alive and home to thousands of Mayans. Experts think the buildings where painted red and blue. The carvings and hieroglyphics that we spent all day examining were multi-colored. Today, the city really does remind me of a skeleton. The flat gray color of the stones are all that remains of what must of been a colorful city.
The following day, Chris takes off for Guatemala and Jen and I head north to Villahermosa. As we wait for a combi to take up to the bus station, we see a couple of toucans. They appear to watch us even as they eat something with their longs bills and then the fly off.
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More of our pictures of Palenque can be seen here.
