Palenque

Our last stop in Mexico was to the mysterious and enchanting, ruined city of Palenque, only a short five hour trip from San Cristobal. We got their later in the afternoon and just managed to secure the last room at Ed and Margarita´s place (A hostel recommended to us from a guy we met in Mexico city). The place was beautiful, set in the midst of a jungle with lots of exotic plants and animals everywhere. Our main reason for the visit to Palenque was to visit the famous Mayan ruins.

Nestled amidst steep and thickly forested hills, the ruins are some of the best preserved in Central America. Most of the buildings were constructed between the 7th and 10th centuries AD. Mysteriously, the city was abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle not to be rediscovered until 1773.

Unique to these ruins is the ability to climb to the top of each of the temples if you so desire. Given the fact that it was pushing the low 30´s the day we went, we opted to climb the most impressive ones only. The climbs were well worth it as the vistas from the tops were amazing.



If you can´t see the above gallery, or want to see the photos in a bigger size with comments, check out the link here - Palenque Pics

We didn´t stay in Palenque long as it was time to finish our Mexico chapter and head into Antigua, Guatemala.