Palenque: beautiful ruins and chikungunya...

After our crazy stay in San Cristobal (we didn’t tell you everything ... but let's say we enjoyed a lot of Mexican wines), we went lost in the jungle of Palenque.

The city of Palenque has no real charm, however the ruins are really beautiful ... but before arriving there I made a "small" hospital visit ... fever, body aches, sore back eyes ... Mosquitoes have not missed me and gave me chikungunya ... and as I was going to heal, Romain took the opportunity to visit two important archaeological sites; Yaxchilan and Bonampak.

Yaxchilan is an ancient Mayan city only accessible by boat. In the middle of the jungle, this site has the distinction of being "green": human constructions mingle melodiously to the abundant nature. Bonampak, a smaller Mayan site, once depended on Yaxchilan. "Bonampak" means "painted walls" and Romain was able to observe beautiful paintings.

The next day, "jealous" of my visit to the hospital, Roman was entitled to a perfusion .... Bad luck for him, the nurses had to make 3 attempts before finding a vein !!! He also caught the "chicon" (nickname we gave to chikungunya)! ... Fortunately, this did not stop us to visit the ruins of Palenque and two waterfalls.

Palenque, another Mayan site, is one of the most developed in the region. The first traces date back to about 100 BC, and archaeologists believe that the town consisted of more than 1,400 buildings. Today only 10% have been explored and the others are still "swallowed up" in the jungle! In fact the city was abandoned around the ninth century. That's really what we liked in Palenque: a bit like Angkor Wat in Cambodia, nature has reasserted itself on many buildings, it is splendid.

One of temples contains a tomb stele which would represent an astronaut ... We have not seen the true stele, only drawings, but to see an astronaut requires a lot of imagination ... What do you think? (and we were not helped by the colours of the image down here…)

Again, legend, myths, beliefs and realities mingle perfectly and leave us full of questions...

We were then able to admire the waterfall Misol Ha and especially swim in the turquoise water (cold, very cold) of Agua Azul! It certainly is good for our fever, but after the bath we were sooo tired ... Where are our beds?

Now we go to Merida where "cenotes" awaits us (if you do not know what it is, wait for our next article ..)! See you soon (in good health hopefully) !