Palenque II

Laura's making me look bad with all her posts, so I thought I'd add one, too.

We're now in Palenque - the town, not the archaeological sight. The archaeological site is the beautiful place Laura described. The town is a dusty place of low concrete buildings and open storefronts hawking blouses, shoes, bananas, and whatever else you might need. Except chargers for Nikon camera batteries. I can assure you that they do not have those.

Today has been kind of a staging day for us. We woke up in the place Laura mentioned - a campsite that our campground/cabins/vegetarian restaurant/granola hippy hangout terms "El Templo." Its basically a circular, two-story, open-air platform with a wood plank floor and tin roof. Vines with huge leaves crawl up the supports, and the roof amplifies the rain so that a sprinkle sounds like a downpour. It rained all night the first night, and it was nice to listen to, dry and in our tent. Last night, as Laura said, we fell asleep to the sound of a band at Don Mucho's restaurant, across a clear jungle stream.

All of this was great, but my backpack was also attacked by the same swarms of biting ants that went after Laura's feet.

Don Mucho's is the center of a little tourist community called El Panchan. It has quite a few people with long hair, or dreadlocks, selling bead necklaces and hemp bracelets. In the middle of the Mexican jungle, it's absolutely packed with foreign travelers, though not so many Americans. There was a girl -- I think she was Spanish -- wearing a hand-made shirt that said, "I'm afraid of Americans." I told her that some of us bite, but not all of us. She seemed taken off guard, which I have to admit I liked.

Anyway, the path from here leads south, and then west, hugging the Guatemalan border. We'll be seeing the ruins of Bonampak, Yaxchilan, and the indigenous community of Lancanja Chansayab. Then we'll turn west, climb into the moutains again, and visit the the Lagos de Montebello.

Hasta la proxima...