picture of our travel plan

picture of our travel plan

Path

15 months starting in St Petersburg,relaxing on the siberian-mongolian train to Bejing.
Exploring the Asian cultures, overland to Singapore, onto Indonesia and the Philipines before heading to South America via New Zealand.
Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Llama`s await before following the Pacific coast up through Peru,Ecudor to Colombia.
Then ancient temples, colonial towns and white beaches whilst travelling overland from Panama to Mexico in Central America !!!!

Mittwoch, 15. Oktober 2014

Mexico - Agua Azul,Misol-Ha and Palenque Ruins

After 3 relaxing days in San Cristobal we were ready to move on. Our next stop would be the Mayan ruins of Palenque. There is a couple of interesting waterfalls and lakes on the road between San Cristobal and Palenque that also sounded very enticing, but using public transport these would be difficult to visit in a reasonable time. This would be our dilemma should we use public transport and head straight to the Palenque ruins or do we take an organised tour that visits the ruins but visits the waterfalls and lakes on route. As a rule we never normally take the tours as we like to view the sights at our own pace avoiding all the tour groups and large numbers of people. This time we opted for the tour and it worked out quite well, but next time we agreed we would use public transport.

After our 5am start our first stop four hours north of San Cristobal the Agua Azul was a series of picturesque pools of green and blue water on different levels with waterfalls between each. After our 1.5 hour stop here where we spent the time lazing around in the water it was time to move on.

45 minutes later our 2nd stop would be the 30 meter drop Misol-Ha waterfall. Another very picturesque waterfall, with a small lake below set in the midst of the jungle. 45 minute stop here just enough time for a few pictures and a quick swim.

Our third and main stop 1 hours drive later is the mayan ruins of Palenque. Here we was given 2.5 hours to explore the ruins which was just about the right amount of time. The ruins of ancient Palenque stand at the precise point where the first hills rise out of the Gulf coast plain. The ruins are set in dense  jungle which creates an amazing appearance and backdrop. Hundreds of ruins are spread over 15 sq km, but only a fairly compact central area has been excavated. The forest around these temples is still home to howler monkeys and toucans. 

The tour left the ruins at 1730, and started the 5 hour trek back to San Cristobal. We however decided to end our tour in Palenque as this made much more sense for us as it was nearer to the north of Guatamala  where we would be heading the next day. Palenque town is not so interested we found some food then a bed and then slept.



















Keine Kommentare:

Kommentar veröffentlichen

Thank you for posting a comment on our blog