Day 7: My life in Ruins

Today started off with another early morning. This time it was to catch the bus to Palenque. One the way, I decided to do some prep for the upcoming adventure of the day. I watched a beloved movie of mine...

 Road to El Dorado. :D

Ok it's not totally about Mayans but we were going to Palenque to see ruins. Actually there were some similarities between the movie and the things we learned about the Mayans.

Back to the day...

We got to Palenque and realized that it was SUPER hot there. Mostly muggy. So we changed at the hostel and then caught a kombi to the ruins. 

Mi kombi primero (my first kombi)!

It actually wasn't too bad.

It wasn't a very long bus ride to the ruins and once we got there, everyone decided we were going to take a guided tour. Honestly, I wasn't really into it because I feel like money just kind of disappears on vacations... But it turned out to be a really good thing. Our guide was pretty funny and had tons of information about each of the ruins and the jungle we went through. We didn't get a whole lot of time since the park closed at 5 but we were able to see just about everything. 


First, we saw the palace. This was where the King lived and our guide told us about the King Pacal. He actually had a limp that is depicted in one of the murals on the palace pillars. 

There was another mural that was the coronation of the king. It is his mother on the left giving the crown to Pacal. I think the Queen's name was also Pacal. Don't quote me on that though.

There were other murals in the palace. There was "Mickey Mouse"... and other random carvings...

To the right is a carving of the God of Rain. I don't remember his real name... 

Inside the palace was the royal court where there were certain seats for the rulers. The chief would sit in a special place where the sun would come through the window at a certain time and illuminate the spot where he sat. Pretty smart construction if you ask me!

From this court we could look out and see what was apparently once a ball court! They played the game similar to the one in "Road to El Dorado". Too cool. I would totally love to play this game. Kinda like futbol but you play with your hip and you have to get it through a hoop. 

Near the court there was this tower where they charted the stars and created the mayan calandar....

"Stars... Can't do it... Not today."





 The doorways were so short, I barely fit through them. It was kinda funny to feel like I was tall for a change. 

That rock table? That's actually a bed. Now take a moment to appreciate that your bed is not actually a slab of limestone. Go ahead. Think about it. :)

We wandered some more and our guide was kind enough to show us how the bathroom was used by the Mayans. This is his demonstration. Classy, no?

Then we were shown the aqueducts that they built. The water came from natural springs near the temples. 

Avocado anyone? 

Or perhaps a banana? 

Next stop was the temple of the sun. I think how it worked was on the summer solstice the sun would shine through the top in a certain way... again don't quote me on it. There were lots of cool inscriptions on it. I think it was one of my favorite temples. 

Next to it was the temple of the shaman, or the medicine man... or maybe it was the priest... no, It's the shaman's temple. It seriously had a million stairs. Ok, not quite that many but I can imagine that this shaman either never came down from the temple or had legs of steel. The view from the top of the temple was beautiful though. you could see everything. And hear everything. There were these howler monkeys that sounded pretty angry. I thought it might be a jaguar at first but the guide said it was howler monkeys. Go figure. They really do howl. 

Then we ventured into the jungle. There were tons of huge trees (as is to be expected)...

And lots of vines to swing on and pretend I'm Jane of the Jungle!

I think this is leftover ruins of another pyramid. The jungle took over the pyramids before they were uncovered again. Some ruins weren't able to be uncovered though... I call this one the hobbit hole. :)
While walking through the jungle, it started to rain really hard but none of the raindrops hit us. We were totally dry under the canopy of the jungle trees. I thought that was pretty cool. Continuing our journey, our guide was following us and then suddenly stopped and looked at the ground where I was standing. Now you know when your guide freaks out, there's got to be something wrong. So I'm standing still all worried and all I can say is "QUE?" (what?). Then he just laughs at me. Funny scare. Ha... At least there wasn't anything really there. 

And then our tour was over and it was time to go home for a nap. Hooray! All the adventures and walking was starting to wear on me. But I definatly enjoyed the day's adventure and learning more about the Mayans. It was cool to wonder what story from the Book of Mormon would talk about this place, or who lived here, Nephites or Lamanites? I won't know till I ask them in heaven but it would be cool to really know what everything meant and what the people were like and such. 

All in all, a pretty love like crazy day. :) 

Day 6: Total Tourist

Today was definatly a tourist day. We woke up and started to... 

wait for it...

let the suspense build...

Site seeing. Oh yeah. 

Even better we found...

A flea market. And Ponchos. Yeah. We're cool. No really, we're just tourists. 

Most of this post will just be pictures. Not a whole lot to say actually. The most we saw were streets and cathedrals. They were pretty awesome. 

There was lots of really awesome wall art around the streets. This is just the coolest one I saw. And the Rainbow Door. We were loving that.

This girl would not leave us alone. There's lots of peddlers who come up to you (with most of the same things) and will try to get you to buy something. Most of the time we can get away with saying "No, gracias." But this girl was either persistent, or didn't understand us. So in hopes to kind of scare her, I took a picture. She wasn't looking so it didn't really work. She eventually left but now I have a picture. The kids here are pretty darn cute. 

I have to explain that the picture with us walking was incredibly hard to do! We did this picture probably four or five times. All the while, these guys found us quite amusing as I went back and forth to see if the picture turned out. I was a little embarrassed but we got the picture. Mission accomplished. 

Most people who see us must think we are so weird for taking so many pictures. This was supposed to say "Friends 4 ever". You can see the 4 ever part. Just a reminder of the great friendships we're already making on this trip! 

The find of the day? Harem pants. No joke, I really got them and they're super comfy. Mine even have silver thread in them so they kind of sparkle. I'm a total sucker for sparkle. And comfort. Janessa and I got some. Success. :)

For dinner, we were in search of a supposed Tai Restaurant that was apparently really good. But we didn't find it. However, we did find Falafel and that was REALLY good. Falafel with veggies and humus all stuffed into a fresh made pita bread. Even though it's not Mexican, still delicious.

They had this really cool mural on the wall with things written in different languages. Most of them were "thank you" and "delicious". 

I found one word that I know in a different language (besides spanish). 

"Tack" means thank you in Swedish. :)

That car made everyone's day. Of course we would freak over a car with a big Auto-bots sticker on the front of it. Wouldn't you? Ok maybe not, but hey, it's still a good memory.

Autobots, Roll out!

As it was getting dark we headed to the last Church before heading back to the hostel. There were quite a few steps to get to the top of it, but the view was pretty incredible. While sitting and gazing out over the city (there were even a few lightning flashes was in the distance), we sat in silence and pondered. I don't know what the other girls were thinking but I was thinking about the view. It reminded me of long drives with my family when we would go for miles without seeing a city and then all of the sudden there would be lights in the distance. I was always mesmerized by the lights. I don't know why. 

After sitting for a while we decided that we should all tell stories. First, we started with embarrassing ones. No, I won't tell them but they were definatly funny. Then we started talking more and more and I could feel the bonding. Funny how talking is the real way to bond. If you want to get closer with someone, talk with them. Ask them their thoughts, and listen. It's becoming my favorite thing to do. 

There's something about this place. It's making me see the world not necessarily in a different way, but more of how similar everything is. I mean, the USA isn't too different from Mexico probably because of how close they are, but it isn't as strange as I thought it would be. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon stage of culture shock, but I also feel kind of at home here. Don't worry mom, I'll still come back, but the only thing out of place about me and Mexico is the fact that I'm blonde and speak very little spanish. Although I don't plan on becoming a brunette anytime soon, I hope to learn more spanish in the coming months. 

I love what I'm learning out here. The things I'm seeing, the people I meet, the friends I've already made, it's all a wonderful experience. And it's not even close to being over! I'm so excited for the rest of my journey and the growth I will hopefully gain from it all. :)

Just another day where I remember the things that make me love life like crazy.