I
had 9 nights to spend in Mexico before Maureen would arrive to join me
for another 8 and I wanted to save
money. Experience has taught me that
the closer that you are to the coast and to the beaches and the diving
the more that you will spend. So I decided to take only a small carry
on backpack and my laptop and a few items that would be most important
and head for Chiapas. Chiapas is Mexico's southern most state and by
some accounts its' poorest. It is very different from the flat coastal
jungle of the Yucatan. Chiapas has mountains and it has jungle and it
has numerous areas to offer adventure.
Mexico has bus
transportation that is better than anything we knew when busses were at
their peak in the United States. It is dependable and affordable. I
flew into Cancun and took an ADO Bus to Palenque that same evening. No
need to wonder where to stay for night number one. Cancun to Palenque
is 13 hours. I arrived in the town of Santo Domingo de Palenque
(usually referred to as just Palenque) early in the morning,
took a look around then got a ride on a collectivo to El Panchan
http://www.elpanchan.com/. Panchan
is a collection of budget
accommodations in the jungle just outside the
entrance to Palenque ruins. I took a place from Margarita of Margarita
and Ed's. I
would rank these cabanas as about the best choice
available.
I paid less than $20USD per night and had a clean
place with
a bed, a toilet and a hot shower. I stayed 4 nights while I did some
typical tourist things. First I walked both ways to the Palenque Ruins.
The next day I was off on a tour to Bonampak and Yaxchilan. To get to
the latter we took a boat up the Usumacinta River to a spot in the
jungle where the river makes an omega sign and almost creates an
island. Almost...but the land where Yaxchilan Ruins are found is still
connected to Mexico. Across the river is Guatemala. The next day I
went to the waterfalls at Misol Ha and Agua Azul. The latter is pretty
commercialized. The waterfall that is pictured below is not
part of Agua Azul. It is along one of the foot paths on the way up to
Palenque Ruins.
Panchan was great. I shall return and
have no
reservations about bringing Maureen to the same place that I stayed.
The howler monkeys sound like a jet engine warming up and in the middle
of it all is Don Muchos, an eatery with great meals, excellent pizza
and cold beer. And Don Muchos has live entertainment every night.
People from the town of Palenque come to Don Muchos in the jungle.
I
should mention that in the 5 days that I was in Chiapas I saw only two
other people from the United
States. One did not speak any Spanish and
I can not imagine what skills are needed to operate where there are
very few English speaking natives. Dollars can be changed at the
bank but will not be welcomed everywhere. This was a bit
refreshing. People from the US think the dollar is like a god that is
worshiped around the planet and a reminder that we are not in "Kansas"
can be good for us.The people were nice and I
always enjoy being treated a bit less like a tourist. When I am near
the coast I am pestered by "hey mister whiskers" usually pronounced
more
like "meeester
weeeskers".
I have grown to loath that phrase perhaps because I
appreciate the way that I am treated in places like Merida and now
Chiapas. I like being treated the same as the natives and other
foreign tourists and tend to avoid any resemblance to the English only
gringos that have become commonplace. The reader shouldn't think that
my Spanish is fluent. It is not! My Spanish is on the high end of
"get by" and the
less English there is being used the harder I try and the better I do
in Spanish. I am to the point where I can travel in the Latin Speaking
World without hesitation. My Maya ( Yucatec Maya ) was of little
use in Chiapas as there they speak a dialect that they refer to as
Lacandonia or Lacandon Maya. Some words; water and sun , for example,
are the same but most others are different. The other good news
about Mexico once you put some distance between yourself and the major
tourist areas is the cost of things. The same beer that costs 17 pesos
in a place in Chiapas , for example, will be 30 - 35 pesos or more in
Playa del Carmen, Cancun or Cozumel unless you walk a few blocks away
from the water and order in Spanish. Y entonces.......... quizas!
john
noftall
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