Craig´s blog about how great it is to go to the ruins of Yaxchilan, which are on a bend of a river in a very isolated area south of Palenque, was right on. One very key reason to go there and Bonampak is to touch the edge of the rainforest. Disappearing so fast. Riding in boats down the Usumacinta river to get to the ruins, you can see how on the edges of the rivers and highways, the jungle is so cut over. To touch the ruins and the Lacandon preserve is a relief, to be back where you see flashes of color as birds go by (saw a toucan in Palenque´s jungle behind the ruins, saw a yellow oriole, heard many signalling to each other) and hearing howler monkeys move around us through the trees as we scrambled up the viny jungle path to the top of Yaxchilan was great. I didn´t know that howlers don´t really howl, they roar, its kinda as if a huge pride of amplified lions was surrounding you. Also got to experience biting jungle ants. Tiny things but the bites sting like cayenne pepper for a while.
I wish we had been able to stay overnight in Frontera Corozal, where you get on the boats for Yaxchilan, because it was much more pleasant than the palenque area. It´s not a dense town, its buildings scattered on or near an open lawny area on the bluffs above the river, where there is a little bit of breeze, the villagers seem to have fun, and the river was great to look at. It´s wide and brown with high banks lined with trees and bushes, supposedly there are crocodiles. At Frontera Corozal, it flows through some limestone cataracts there which are real pretty and the many long boats are painted in bright colors. It´s also real fun to go swirling downriver except when the guide was not looking and ran over a large partly submerged log. Scary when he slows down to check that the propellar is clear.
Yaxchilan´s ruins are extensive, and so nice because shaded by many trees growing up and through them. There is plenty to see and the grey buildings with their geometric see through facades look great there. I would recommend if you go there since they only give 2 hours at the site, to whiz through the large Gran Plaza, quickly climb up to building 33, enjoy it, find the trail and go all the way up to the 4 buildings on the very top, and then come down slowly. That way you have a chance to see it fresh without people, then explore slowly on your return. We didn´t have time to see the Small Plaza but a friend with us, Andy from Germany, said we didn´t miss much there. The buildings in the Gran Plaza and above it are fantastic. I especially liked going into the cloistery areas and poking into the little rooms, which have very high pointed ceilings, and finding and hearing the little bats there. Small things, not scary. Between bat squeaks, howler roars, bird songs, not bad at at all. Green shady and wild feeling. It´s great that there are no roads there, your imagination is well prepared by the boat ride down.
The ride into Bonampak which is about 45 minutes away f rom Frontera (but not that easy to do with pub lic transport apparently ) is also nice. The Lacandon indians have a large reserve now, and they have to drive you in, and their roads are gravel and they don´t do large clearcuts and so you don´t feel so much like a big slash has been cut through the jungle. Then when we got to the shacklike old buildings that are near the ruins, built long ago for the archaeologists, I thought about how our friend Connie made her way here in the 1970s, when finding it was either a days long muddy landrover type experience, or else you had to fly in. As you walk towards the ruins area there is a tiny prop plane still there, presumbly junk, and then you cross the runway. It was just like Rap Raplinger´s skit about the Portagee pilots landing, where the pilot says, Oh, how short the runway! and then the copilot looks side to side and says, Oh yes, and how wide! Because of the jungle you couldn´t see the runway til you were in the middle. Then you are in the plaza of the ruins looking up at one of those steep hillsides that got transformed with stonework into great tiers of temples. Really nice. And jungle birds and flowers all around. Coming down you can go into a dark earth floored hut for cokes and ice cream and look up at the rafters where the hammocks have been tied up high for the night.
Another nice thing was being in Palenque 2 nights ago for a great jungle rain. Sitting snug in our bungalow sitting out on our lanai looking into the jungle night, water sheeting down, streams rising, that was great. Made things nice and cool for such a brief time.
We know there is another unexcavated ruins near Palenque, Piedras Negras, and one day we´d like to find that. We like the wild feeling. Palenque is great, impressive as can be, but very manicured with tidy little gravel paths .
Yesterday we came back up to the highlands and although again on the windy journey up over the mountains, the poverty and overcut nature of the highlands is distressing, back in San Cristobal the beauty again is so restoring and the fresh air so great.
Craig has been writing about our inspired french meal and today, horse riding to San Juan Chamula with 2 nice young women, Scarlet from Berkeley and Jessica from New Jersey. They´ve been working in Mexico through Northeaster n and have been working in an orphanage and have seen a lot. What I really enjoyed was being back at San Juan Chamula with the church inside and inside freshly coated with green decorations for the upcoming festival of San Juan, there were many people quietly worshipping with f resh candles and it was much less of a tourist experience. I look forward to being able to include a picture of the outside. I also really liked riding there and back through the back roads and pine plantations and galloping a little bit in the light rain that started falling. Also sitting in the market there which is large, open, and characterized by bright ly colored umbrellas instead of stalls, it´s quite colorful and the tacos and tamales they sell there are very tasty and the market is for the locals not the tourists. And the church today really felt like it was a special place just for the locals, today. There was also a great band playing through loudspeakers by the church and occasional fireworks going off, well actually the band turned out to be just a lone guy playing the synthesizer.
That reminds me of one more great thing today, this amazing Municipal marimba band playing in San Cristobal. These guys were pros. They had a trumpet player, 2 marimbas manned by 5 people, a base player and a fantastic drummer with a long pigtail. I look forward to putting this picture in also. They played caribbean cuban music then some mexican standards none stale. They were quite consumate musicians. The marimba keyboard if you call it that is set up like a piano and one of the best players was playing with 4 little hammers at once. I have no idea how his knuckles moved them so he was always playing chords, the width and placement of the hammers was flying so fast and he was totally at ease. Lots of folks were looking on. They were just set up in the middle of one of the flagstone areas of the plaza for no special reason, I guess they are there every monday from 8 to 10 preceded by a pretty lousy but muy tipico military sounding band that luckily we only heard from a distance.
Tomorrow we go on to the coffee plantation town of Comitan for a few days and to the Lagunas de Montebello which is 50 lakes set in the limestone highlands, apparently of all kinds of turqoise and blue shades, with a few picturesque small ruins near too. We´ll see.
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