Palenque

Thursday 17th December 1987

At the Bus Station we met a German couple who we had seen on previous buses, who seemed to be on a lightening tour, with money no object, staying for just half an hour in each place. The bus, which cost 4,530 Mexican Pesos, left the station at 06:10 hrs. just as the sky was lightening. Mexicans in cowboy hats waited for buses along the roadside.

Yet again we wound our way into the mountains, but the landscape was darker green and dank this time. The cloud was low, and the jungle-like vegetation seemed to be steaming. We crossed more rivers on this trip and at places the road deteriorated into little more than a muddy track.

Workers with shovels looking like navvies (a labourer employed in the excavation and construction of a road, railway, or canal.) the world over, worked to clear the road. The bus driver kissed and petted two buxom harlots as he fought to keep us on the road. Meanwhile his buddy, a mute that we nicknamed “Elvis”, combed his quiff frequently and bounded up and down the aisle.

We gorged on wholemeal bread and jam, making a great mess. When we arrived at Palenque at 11:30 hrs. the German bloke tutted at the overcast sky and muttered about abandoning visiting ancient relics and moving on in search of the sun.

We grabbed our bags and walked out of town on the 8-kilometre road to the famous ruins (ruinas). We were passed by two boys on a horse who we had an amicable exchange with. They told us that “Mirabel Trailer Park”, our destination, was “muy lejos” (very far away).

Luckily, after walking a few kilometres we got a lift in a pickup truck which sailed passed the campsite and dropped us at the Palenque ruins. Here we found a collection of gimcrack stalls selling showy but cheap or badly made ornaments, novelties, gewgaws, bric-a-brac and trinkets. A group of indigenous Indians in traditional dress and training shoe were selling bows and arrows.

We got a Collectivo VW Campervan back 2 kilometres to Mayabell Camping where it was 1,500 Mexican Pesos for a wall-less cabana with a palm thatch roof in which to swing our hammocks. The campsite man chortled at my small nylon mesh hammock and Declan’s large but poor-quality hammock and spent an increasingly tedious 45 minutes trying to sell us superior quality hammocks “made by his family”.

We sat and peered out below our low palm fringed roof at bright yellow birds. The area buzzes with insects and rock music is audible from the hippy encampment on the hill. We decided to investigate Tucan Camping as a source of cheap food and beer. It was recommended in the South American Handbook, but if it ever existed, it doesn’t now.

We jumped into a Collectivo to the Ruinas and the driver tried to rip us off for double the fare. Declan gave him short shrift, paid the correct fare and not the “tourist price” and we jumped off and went into the Palenque Ruins.

These were once again the stepped pyramids of the indigenous Indians, but this time in better preservation and amid a greener setting. The central building in this ancient city had a tower in the middle and we clambered up a worn staircase to get a good view of the site and take some photographs.

This was The Palace, a complex of several connected and adjacent buildings and courtyards, which was built by several generations on a wide artificial terrace during a four-century period. The Palace was used by the Mayan aristocracy for bureaucratic functions, entertainment, and ritualistic ceremonies.

The most impressive building was the the Temple of Inscriptions which had begun perhaps as early as 675 as the funerary monument of Hanab-Pakal. It was off to one side and required a bit of effort to mount the steep staired front.

The Pyramid measures 60 meters wide, 42.5 meters deep and 27.2 meters high. The Summit temple measures 25.5 meters wide, 10.5 meters deep and 11.4 meters high. The largest stones weigh 12 to 15 tons. These were on top of the Pyramid. The Total volume of pyramid and temple is 32,500 cubic meters.

Once at the top more stairs descended steeply into the central crypt where we arrived, dripping with sweat, to the Sun God's tomb. The tomb itself is remarkable for its large carved sarcophagus, the rich ornaments accompanying Pakal, and for the stucco sculpture decorating the walls of the tomb.

The Temple of the Cross, Temple of the Sun, and Temple of the Foliated Cross are a set of graceful temples atop step pyramids, each with an elaborately carved relief in the inner chamber depicting two figures presenting ritual objects and effigies to a central icon.

We walked back to Mayabell Camping and encountered a motley trio of Canadians who had been out harvesting magic mushrooms. Magic mushrooms are wild or cultivated mushrooms that contain psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychoactive and hallucinogenic compound. Psilocybin is considered one of the most well-known psychedelics, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations, so it was right up their street!

We had a beer with this group, a tall woman, a tanned shaggy man and an older “Uncle Rufus”-type character in a straw hat. They told us that they didn’t stay at the beach resort of Puerto Ángel as they felt “bad energy” there.

After several attempts to light a fire in our cabana we returned to the Mayabell Restaurant for chicken and rice. Our fellow campers were a strange assortment of hippies and freaks, so after a few “Superior” beers we went back to bed in our hammocks at 21:00 hrs. It rained all night.