After hopping in an absolutely packed passenger van with an assorted group of Mexican couples and very interesting crowd of American grad students on Fulbright Grants who were working in Mexico City, we headed out for the day long trip.
The first drive to the Agua Azul was a bit interesting as the couple in row 2 proceeded to get motion sick and yak (first girlfriend then sympathetic boyfriend). Everyone else was very kind and offering to help except for some random Aussie in the back corner yelling "cut the weak links, let's run".
Nonetheless it was a beautiful drive through the mountains (but not as beautiful as Loftin Johnson), and though a bit behind schedule, we eventually made it.
The park has a nice wide path that runs along a river with a series of average size waterfalls and beautiful blue water due to a high mineral content.
Also lining the path are a variety of traditional and touristy Mexican clothing and food retailers set up in tents. After a very difficult decision, Dan and I settled on two shirts which officially represent our best Mexican purchases thus far.
We spent our 1.5 hours power walking along the river and then returned to the bus for the departure to our next destination Misol-Ha.
This was another waterfall and although we had thought we were all waterfalled out, this one was pretty cool since there was a smaller waterfall to the side that was fed by an underground stream housed within a cavern that you can walk/swim into.
After a brief stint here where we covered the entire area before team Fulbright had even gotten off the bus it seemed, we hopped back in bound for the grand finale, Palenque.
Palenque was a former Mayan city built in the 6th century deep within the jungle. It is regarded as one of the top two ruins sites along with Teotihuacan (previous trip with the huge pyramids) and while very different, was awesome.
It was awesome walking around since the entire park is within a mountainous jungle which created an incredible backdrop for the already impressive ruins. The whole time it seemed like the only noise was the howler monkeys screaming at the top of their lungs just beyond the border of the trees.
The central area which contains the royal palace and several enormous temples has been completely excavated from the jungle and is wide open, but there are also surrounding plazas that they have left more or less untouched which were also cool to see.
We stayed about 2 hours until the park closed and then grabbed a van down to the bus station in the actual town of Palenque. The park doesn't employ guides and instead people are welcome to come in and show people around. As a result all the guides are about 13 years old, but nonetheless know their stuff. We got to ride with Eduardo and Ricky on the way back and they were absolutely hilarious.
Once in the town we bought a bus ticket. We almost had a coronary when the woman told us the 10 hour drive would take 14 hours due to some stops, but were calmed down a bit when the driver said it would be 10.
12 hours later (got to love Mexico time) we arrived in Puebla well rested from another great night on the bus, absolutely in love with Chiapas, and ready for a big week of classes as everyone is piling on the work for the final stretch. Fortunately we are making some time for ourselves as tonight there will be another enormous party (and a good chance the Captain will be making an appearance) for the entire university at a new night club with a South African safari theme.
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