Palenque
The Palenque ruins are famous worldwide (to those who know them at least). I had personally never heard of them. That possibly helped lower my expectations, but regardless I was blown away. Palenque was definitely my favourite ruin, a little out of the way to avoid the bus loads of Chichen Itza, and bigger than Coba. You can climb pretty much anything (great for us, possibly not for future generations), and the jungle setting gives it that great India Jones feels. Definitely check it out if you get the chance!
The bus is supposed to take 5 hours but it was actually closer to 6. The bus wasn't took packed though so we had enough space, Kate still didn't appear to be too pleased!
Many advise staying in El Panchan which is an area between Palenque town and the ruins. It's home to a few resorts, restaurants and museums and is relatively self sufficient. Going against that advice we decided to stay in the town. We assumed we'd only be heading in to the ruins once and didn't think it was worth staying further in to the jungle. We were also conscious that the mosquitoes might be horrible around there.
Instead we stayed at Hotel Casssa (not a spelling mistake) Vlanca (pronounced Blanca). It was relatively cheap at around 500 pesos a night, and looked okay on booking.com. The hotel had it's flaws (could have been cleaner, and the air-con didn't always seem to work) but that was more than made up for by the owners. They we so nice! Saying hello, asking us about our days and giving advice. They made us feel at home. The owner even greeted us by exclaiming that the people of Chiapas are the "most friendly of all Mexico", and he definitely proved that to be true.
As an example, he helped us change another booking at a hotel as we had some trouble with the buses. He rang the hotel for us and made sure everything was in order as our Spanish wasn't quite up to the task. Also, there was a fair amount of improvements happening so I imagine in a year or so this hotel will not only have a soul, it'll also be top-notch.
The bus from Campeche was pretty uneventful - though at 6 hours it was our longest so far. We got a first class bus which basically means it has a toilet so we at least didn't need to dehydrate ourselves as much as possible! We arrived around 5 and as it was still blistering hot and the hotel was about 2 kilometres away we got a taxi.
We were greeted like old friends by the owner and he immediately started asking us how we were and how our trip was as well as giving us advice on what to do and where to go. He was also very proud that there is a nesting site for Macaws (The classic scarlet red parrot) just opposite the hotel in an old water tank. We settled down our things before thinking about dinner. We hadn't eaten very much all day as we'd been stuck on a bus.
We decided to just go for a walk and see what we found. Went for dinner at Las Tinajas a Mexican restaurant near the centre of town. The portions were large and food was ok. Nothing to write home about, but it was good for the price. After that we headed back to the hotel as we had to be up early to head to Palenque ruins
Day 1
We got up pretty early to try and get down to the ruins by 8am, we'd found so far that you avoid the crowds this way and your photos aren't filled up with tourists. We grabbed a couple of apples from a local shop, and I got a few cakes to keep me going. We walked down the main street until we found the group of collectivos heading towards the ruins (they say Ruinas on the front and the drivers usually heckle you as you walk past asking if you want to go). It was 20 pesos each which we were pretty happy with. The collectivo left after about 10 mins and the journey was about 15. As we passed in to the park (a larger area which includes the ruins and museums etc) we had to pay 30 pesos, then at the ruins tickets were 70 pesos. We didn't bother with a guide due to money and time, a lot of the guides can take 3-4 hours!
We stayed at the ruins for about 2 hours, and were pretty excited to find that you could go up a lot of the ruins and even check out inside some too. The jungle backdrop was definitely impressive, and there was a lot more to see than Coba (though Coba's main temple wasn't beaten here). The views were amazing and even better was the opportunity to see howler monkey's that often frequent the park grounds. Palenque also has a lot more examples of the intricate carvings the Mayans had done, they were dotted around the site and oven protected by roofs to keep the elements off them. Kate and I tired ourselves out running up and down all the stairs and making the most of the lack of tourists. As we had skipped the guide we could run ahead and explore further in to the ruins at our leisure.
We got a Collectivo back in to town and as we were hungry we decided to stop at a Juice Bar Kate had seen the day before that might be nice for some lunch. I got the tuna sandwich and Kate got a chicken wrap. We were a little apprehensive when we got the food as there was plenty of lettuce and vegetables in them. Back home this would have been great, but in Mexico there is a worry that they've been washed in unclean water and/or left out for a long time. We ate the food anyway and went back to the hotel to pack up before heading to the bus station to catch a bus.
When we got back to the hotel (around 11am) I had a quick check of the ADO bus website to see when the next bus was. To my horror the website said the next bus was at 7pm, and not only that, it would take 8-9 hours... this was not what we had expected. At least in the lonely planet it said it should only take 5 and it didn't look too far on the map. We went and spoke to the owner of the hostel and he told us that the ADO buses don't go directly to San Cristobal de las Casas anymore because the road is not good enough and there were protests from locals putting a stop to them. That means the ADO buses went via Villahermosa which adds on an extra 3-4 hours to the trip. Our immediate thought was no... we can find a better way surely.
I checked the ADO website and found that one of the buses the next day actually took 5 hours. We decided that we would stay another night in Palenque, maybe go see some waterfalls, and get that bus tomorrow. The next issue was our hostel in San Cristobal was already booked for that night, we'd booked it through booking.com and found we were unable to change it through the website. I found the hostel's number online and as we didn't have a phone, and also hardly spoke Spanish, I asked the owner of our current hotel if he'd mind calling them for us and asking them if it was possible to move the booking. A quick call later - involving many Spanish words I'd never heard before - we had our booking changed, and so we paid for another night in Palenque - time to do some washing then!
By this point Kate had a rather bad stomach ache, and mine didn't feel great either. We put this down to the dodgy sandwiches we'd had earlier and were fearing the worst. We still needed to head down to the bus station to book our bus however, I still really wanted to go and check out Misol-Ha a waterfall about 30 mins away. We headed out after hanging our washing up to dry and walked in the direction of the bus station.
Along the way we stopped off for a mango smoothie in the hope that it would settle our stomachs slightly. The place we went to was called Ha Ki coffee and juice bar and added Cafe Verde (green coffee) to their smoothies and a few extra ingredients and the results were perfect. I felt a bit of life flow back in to me and Kate also started to feel a bit better.
We finished our walk up to the bus station and I asked at the ticket counter about the bus the next day. It turned out that the 5 hour bus ride was non-existent and actually and error on the website. Not what we wanted to hear at all... So, we weighed up our options. We decided to head to the collectivos to find out how much a collectivo to Ocosingo was. Oconsingo was the town halfway between Palenque and San Cristobal de las Casas and from there we could catch another Collectivo to San Cristobal. We found out it was 80 pesos to Ocosingo per person and it should be roughly the same again to get to our destination. We decided to go for that option the next day, it also had the advantage of not having to book, we could just come down and jump on the next one.
After we'd decided on that we caught a Collectivo towards Ocosingo to get to Misol-Ha, a waterfall about 30 minutes away. We were crammed in to the Collectivo, which didn't leave until every seat was taken. And by this point Kate had started to feel a bit sick again. The Collectivo started off and we quickly discovered why the ADO buses might not want to use the road. It was a state! What followed was a very uncomfortable ride, closer to about 50 minutes in length.
By the time we got dropped off Kate was feeling awful! It was another two kilometre walk down to the waterfall car park which was down a road with no pavement, which luckily wasn't too busy! Had Kate not been feeling unwell she would have been able to enjoy the walk through the Mexican countryside. It was very pretty and quiet with farm and grazing land on either side. One thing we hadn't known about - and might have been a scam! - was a 10 peso per person fee for just walking down the road. At first we thought we had paid the entrance fee until we got to the waterfall entrance and had to pay an extra 30 each for that!
We got to the waterfall after a 15 minute walk, we hadn't realised at this point that the walk had all been downhill! There is a shop and restaurant at the waterfalls, as well as a lot more buses and cars than we expected to see. We got changed in the bathrooms - another 5 pesos each - and headed down to the waterfall. Misol-Ha is a 35 metre waterfall that descends in to a small lake that you can swim in. The power of the waterfall, especially in the rainy season is immense, you can hear it from a way off and though there's nothing stopping you swimming right in to it (and people were) you probably wouldn't want to risk it. We had a swim for about 10 minutes before getting a bit cold and deciding to go for an explore round the back of the waterfall.
One of the cool bits about Misol-Ha is there's a little walkway that takes you round behind the waterfall so you can look out through it, from there you can continue walking a short distance to a cave (an extra 10 pesos entry). The cave is very short - about 35 metres - and at the end you can see an underground waterfall, it wasn't anything special so not sure I would recommend it. After that we got an ice cream and started the walk back up the hill to see if we could find a Collectivo back to Palenque.
After waiting for about a minute a truck pulled up - it wasn't a Collectivo it was just a guy with a truck who offered to take us back to Palenque for 50 pesos, so 10 pesos cheaper than a Collectivo. We decided to go for it and found there were a couple of other people doing the same thing. We quickly found that his truck was far better suited to the roads than the Collectivos - though it drive quite fast and we did fear for our lifes on several occasions. We got back to Palenque safely however and headed back to the hotel. On our way back we encountered a few people who were selling trips to San Cristobal via the waterfalls (Misal-Ha & Agua Azul) for about 400 pesos. In hindsight it would have been a great option and we may well have gone with it if we hadn't already been to Misol-Ha but we decided against it as it was a lot more money and the trips often didn't get in til 9pm.
We got back to the hotel and we busy talking to the owner about the improvements he was making around the hotel when suddenly we heard a squark and the owners eyes lit up. The macaws were back for the day. We headed outside to take a look and saw 2 macaws playing around the old water tank opposite. According to the hotel owner there can sometimes be as many as 15 parrots flying around! We stayed and watched them for about 10 minutes before heading back inside to give ourselves a rest.
As Kate was still feeling a bit unwell I decided to give my jetboil a shot. It's a small camping stove and perfect for making cups of tea and coffee. We'd got the gas back in Tulum and I hadn't had a chance to give it a go. It was a lot bigger than the official jetboil canisters so the jetboil balances slightly precariously on the top, however it is stable. The jetboil boils crazy quick so it was only about a minute and the tea was ready. Great success!
After a rest and a cup of tea Kate felt a lot better so we started to think what we might like for dinner. We thought about going to Monte Verde which is the number one place in Palenque and does Kate's favourite, Italian food. I thought it might be a bit much to get a taxi there and back at around 50 pesos each way so we decided to go for a walk and see if we could find anywhere. On the way out we asked the hotel owner for any recommendations, "Monte Verde!" he said. We walked around the city centre for about 5 minutes before jumping in a taxi towards El Palchan where Monte Verde is. The Restaurant is at the end of a dirt track that would ideally suit a 4x4. The taxi however bumped along happily and before long we were at the restaurant. The first thing you do when you walk through the door is walk right through the kitchen - which is different!
The food was great, and we even got some wine to go with it. The best bit was it wasn't overly expensive either. About 100 pesos for a main, better than what we'd been paying on the islands! The restaurant is completely open on one side so we were also treated to a lightening storm while we ate, with the side effect that our candle kept on being blown out! After the meal we asked the restaurant to call us a taxi and it was back to the hotel to bed.
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| Exploring Palenque Ruins |
Getting There
Getting from Campeche to Palenque is relatively easy, though it's quite a long bus ride (compared to what we've been used to so far). We got a 35 pesos taxi to the bus terminal and then booked on to the 11:05 bus to Palenque for about $400 pesos (with the long bus ride also comes the price tag). We thought about going second class but apparently the route isn't direct and at 5 hours it was already too long.The bus is supposed to take 5 hours but it was actually closer to 6. The bus wasn't took packed though so we had enough space, Kate still didn't appear to be too pleased!
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| Not impressed with an extra hour on the bus |
Where we stayed - Hotel Casssa Vlanca
Many advise staying in El Panchan which is an area between Palenque town and the ruins. It's home to a few resorts, restaurants and museums and is relatively self sufficient. Going against that advice we decided to stay in the town. We assumed we'd only be heading in to the ruins once and didn't think it was worth staying further in to the jungle. We were also conscious that the mosquitoes might be horrible around there.Instead we stayed at Hotel Casssa (not a spelling mistake) Vlanca (pronounced Blanca). It was relatively cheap at around 500 pesos a night, and looked okay on booking.com. The hotel had it's flaws (could have been cleaner, and the air-con didn't always seem to work) but that was more than made up for by the owners. They we so nice! Saying hello, asking us about our days and giving advice. They made us feel at home. The owner even greeted us by exclaiming that the people of Chiapas are the "most friendly of all Mexico", and he definitely proved that to be true.
As an example, he helped us change another booking at a hotel as we had some trouble with the buses. He rang the hotel for us and made sure everything was in order as our Spanish wasn't quite up to the task. Also, there was a fair amount of improvements happening so I imagine in a year or so this hotel will not only have a soul, it'll also be top-notch.
Things to do
- Palenque Ruins - The main draw to Palenque is the ruins, these are indeed very cool. My favourite out of Chichen Itza, and Coba (Though I'd still go to all of them). Not as pricey or busy either.
- Misol-Ha - A 35 metre waterfall which you can swim in front of and follow some steps to go behind it too. There is also a cave behind it though it's not really anything special.
- Agua Azul - A multi-tiered waterfall with different pools for swimming in all the way up. It can apparently be slightly more dangerous during rainy season.
- Package tour to San Cristobal - At the time of writing there is no ADO bus going directly from Palenque to San Cristobal (apparently something to do with local protested and the state of the road). An alternative is to book on to a tour that takes you there and stops off at the ruins and the waterfalls along the way. We were quoted $400 pesos each but as we'd been to the ruins and Misol-Ha already it wasn't worth it for us.
Food & Drink
- Monte Verde - Number 1 place to eat in Palenque but still pretty cheap - well worth the taxi ride
- Organico Coffee - there's actually two of these tiny coffee shops around the main square, some of the best coffee we've had so far.
- Ha Ki Coffee and Juice Bar - Try the Mango smoothie with cafe verde (green coffee)
Journal
ArrivalThe bus from Campeche was pretty uneventful - though at 6 hours it was our longest so far. We got a first class bus which basically means it has a toilet so we at least didn't need to dehydrate ourselves as much as possible! We arrived around 5 and as it was still blistering hot and the hotel was about 2 kilometres away we got a taxi.
We were greeted like old friends by the owner and he immediately started asking us how we were and how our trip was as well as giving us advice on what to do and where to go. He was also very proud that there is a nesting site for Macaws (The classic scarlet red parrot) just opposite the hotel in an old water tank. We settled down our things before thinking about dinner. We hadn't eaten very much all day as we'd been stuck on a bus.
We decided to just go for a walk and see what we found. Went for dinner at Las Tinajas a Mexican restaurant near the centre of town. The portions were large and food was ok. Nothing to write home about, but it was good for the price. After that we headed back to the hotel as we had to be up early to head to Palenque ruins
Day 1
We got up pretty early to try and get down to the ruins by 8am, we'd found so far that you avoid the crowds this way and your photos aren't filled up with tourists. We grabbed a couple of apples from a local shop, and I got a few cakes to keep me going. We walked down the main street until we found the group of collectivos heading towards the ruins (they say Ruinas on the front and the drivers usually heckle you as you walk past asking if you want to go). It was 20 pesos each which we were pretty happy with. The collectivo left after about 10 mins and the journey was about 15. As we passed in to the park (a larger area which includes the ruins and museums etc) we had to pay 30 pesos, then at the ruins tickets were 70 pesos. We didn't bother with a guide due to money and time, a lot of the guides can take 3-4 hours!
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| Map of Palenque ruins |
We stayed at the ruins for about 2 hours, and were pretty excited to find that you could go up a lot of the ruins and even check out inside some too. The jungle backdrop was definitely impressive, and there was a lot more to see than Coba (though Coba's main temple wasn't beaten here). The views were amazing and even better was the opportunity to see howler monkey's that often frequent the park grounds. Palenque also has a lot more examples of the intricate carvings the Mayans had done, they were dotted around the site and oven protected by roofs to keep the elements off them. Kate and I tired ourselves out running up and down all the stairs and making the most of the lack of tourists. As we had skipped the guide we could run ahead and explore further in to the ruins at our leisure.
We got a Collectivo back in to town and as we were hungry we decided to stop at a Juice Bar Kate had seen the day before that might be nice for some lunch. I got the tuna sandwich and Kate got a chicken wrap. We were a little apprehensive when we got the food as there was plenty of lettuce and vegetables in them. Back home this would have been great, but in Mexico there is a worry that they've been washed in unclean water and/or left out for a long time. We ate the food anyway and went back to the hotel to pack up before heading to the bus station to catch a bus.
When we got back to the hotel (around 11am) I had a quick check of the ADO bus website to see when the next bus was. To my horror the website said the next bus was at 7pm, and not only that, it would take 8-9 hours... this was not what we had expected. At least in the lonely planet it said it should only take 5 and it didn't look too far on the map. We went and spoke to the owner of the hostel and he told us that the ADO buses don't go directly to San Cristobal de las Casas anymore because the road is not good enough and there were protests from locals putting a stop to them. That means the ADO buses went via Villahermosa which adds on an extra 3-4 hours to the trip. Our immediate thought was no... we can find a better way surely.
I checked the ADO website and found that one of the buses the next day actually took 5 hours. We decided that we would stay another night in Palenque, maybe go see some waterfalls, and get that bus tomorrow. The next issue was our hostel in San Cristobal was already booked for that night, we'd booked it through booking.com and found we were unable to change it through the website. I found the hostel's number online and as we didn't have a phone, and also hardly spoke Spanish, I asked the owner of our current hotel if he'd mind calling them for us and asking them if it was possible to move the booking. A quick call later - involving many Spanish words I'd never heard before - we had our booking changed, and so we paid for another night in Palenque - time to do some washing then!
By this point Kate had a rather bad stomach ache, and mine didn't feel great either. We put this down to the dodgy sandwiches we'd had earlier and were fearing the worst. We still needed to head down to the bus station to book our bus however, I still really wanted to go and check out Misol-Ha a waterfall about 30 mins away. We headed out after hanging our washing up to dry and walked in the direction of the bus station.
Along the way we stopped off for a mango smoothie in the hope that it would settle our stomachs slightly. The place we went to was called Ha Ki coffee and juice bar and added Cafe Verde (green coffee) to their smoothies and a few extra ingredients and the results were perfect. I felt a bit of life flow back in to me and Kate also started to feel a bit better.
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| Mango Smoothie - featuring green coffee from Ha ki coffee & juice bar |
We finished our walk up to the bus station and I asked at the ticket counter about the bus the next day. It turned out that the 5 hour bus ride was non-existent and actually and error on the website. Not what we wanted to hear at all... So, we weighed up our options. We decided to head to the collectivos to find out how much a collectivo to Ocosingo was. Oconsingo was the town halfway between Palenque and San Cristobal de las Casas and from there we could catch another Collectivo to San Cristobal. We found out it was 80 pesos to Ocosingo per person and it should be roughly the same again to get to our destination. We decided to go for that option the next day, it also had the advantage of not having to book, we could just come down and jump on the next one.
After we'd decided on that we caught a Collectivo towards Ocosingo to get to Misol-Ha, a waterfall about 30 minutes away. We were crammed in to the Collectivo, which didn't leave until every seat was taken. And by this point Kate had started to feel a bit sick again. The Collectivo started off and we quickly discovered why the ADO buses might not want to use the road. It was a state! What followed was a very uncomfortable ride, closer to about 50 minutes in length.
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| Getting some air on a very crowded Collectivo |
By the time we got dropped off Kate was feeling awful! It was another two kilometre walk down to the waterfall car park which was down a road with no pavement, which luckily wasn't too busy! Had Kate not been feeling unwell she would have been able to enjoy the walk through the Mexican countryside. It was very pretty and quiet with farm and grazing land on either side. One thing we hadn't known about - and might have been a scam! - was a 10 peso per person fee for just walking down the road. At first we thought we had paid the entrance fee until we got to the waterfall entrance and had to pay an extra 30 each for that!
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| Walking down to Misol-Ha |
We got to the waterfall after a 15 minute walk, we hadn't realised at this point that the walk had all been downhill! There is a shop and restaurant at the waterfalls, as well as a lot more buses and cars than we expected to see. We got changed in the bathrooms - another 5 pesos each - and headed down to the waterfall. Misol-Ha is a 35 metre waterfall that descends in to a small lake that you can swim in. The power of the waterfall, especially in the rainy season is immense, you can hear it from a way off and though there's nothing stopping you swimming right in to it (and people were) you probably wouldn't want to risk it. We had a swim for about 10 minutes before getting a bit cold and deciding to go for an explore round the back of the waterfall.
One of the cool bits about Misol-Ha is there's a little walkway that takes you round behind the waterfall so you can look out through it, from there you can continue walking a short distance to a cave (an extra 10 pesos entry). The cave is very short - about 35 metres - and at the end you can see an underground waterfall, it wasn't anything special so not sure I would recommend it. After that we got an ice cream and started the walk back up the hill to see if we could find a Collectivo back to Palenque.
After waiting for about a minute a truck pulled up - it wasn't a Collectivo it was just a guy with a truck who offered to take us back to Palenque for 50 pesos, so 10 pesos cheaper than a Collectivo. We decided to go for it and found there were a couple of other people doing the same thing. We quickly found that his truck was far better suited to the roads than the Collectivos - though it drive quite fast and we did fear for our lifes on several occasions. We got back to Palenque safely however and headed back to the hotel. On our way back we encountered a few people who were selling trips to San Cristobal via the waterfalls (Misal-Ha & Agua Azul) for about 400 pesos. In hindsight it would have been a great option and we may well have gone with it if we hadn't already been to Misol-Ha but we decided against it as it was a lot more money and the trips often didn't get in til 9pm.
We got back to the hotel and we busy talking to the owner about the improvements he was making around the hotel when suddenly we heard a squark and the owners eyes lit up. The macaws were back for the day. We headed outside to take a look and saw 2 macaws playing around the old water tank opposite. According to the hotel owner there can sometimes be as many as 15 parrots flying around! We stayed and watched them for about 10 minutes before heading back inside to give ourselves a rest.
As Kate was still feeling a bit unwell I decided to give my jetboil a shot. It's a small camping stove and perfect for making cups of tea and coffee. We'd got the gas back in Tulum and I hadn't had a chance to give it a go. It was a lot bigger than the official jetboil canisters so the jetboil balances slightly precariously on the top, however it is stable. The jetboil boils crazy quick so it was only about a minute and the tea was ready. Great success!
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| Jetboil - a great portable stove for backpacking - though you can't always get the right gas... |
After a rest and a cup of tea Kate felt a lot better so we started to think what we might like for dinner. We thought about going to Monte Verde which is the number one place in Palenque and does Kate's favourite, Italian food. I thought it might be a bit much to get a taxi there and back at around 50 pesos each way so we decided to go for a walk and see if we could find anywhere. On the way out we asked the hotel owner for any recommendations, "Monte Verde!" he said. We walked around the city centre for about 5 minutes before jumping in a taxi towards El Palchan where Monte Verde is. The Restaurant is at the end of a dirt track that would ideally suit a 4x4. The taxi however bumped along happily and before long we were at the restaurant. The first thing you do when you walk through the door is walk right through the kitchen - which is different!
The food was great, and we even got some wine to go with it. The best bit was it wasn't overly expensive either. About 100 pesos for a main, better than what we'd been paying on the islands! The restaurant is completely open on one side so we were also treated to a lightening storm while we ate, with the side effect that our candle kept on being blown out! After the meal we asked the restaurant to call us a taxi and it was back to the hotel to bed.
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