Pelenque

 Subject: Pelenque (2)

 

 

Hola once again,

We have heard so much about Pelenque along the way. And each and every person we talked to said - "You have to stay at Mayabell". And with good reason. It's a funky little campground with a great restaurant that has live music every night and you can walk to the famous Pelenque ruins. Perfect.

I mentioned that we're actually here right now again. We, in fact, arrived just this afternoon and ate some of those great enchiladas verde at the restaurant for lunch. We spent four nights here previously, then went down to the Guatamalan border and saw the ruins at Yaxchilan and Bonampak. You can google these places, I'm sure. Both amazing and will be the subjects of the next two emails. But, first, Pelenque. We're actually going back there in the morning for a second look.

Pelenque is huge. The buildings that they have excavated and that we can all explore are (some of them) huge. And they're in pretty good shape considering that they are just about 2,000 years old!!! Mayan ruins that are incredible, to say the least. The photos will not do the site justice but you will get the idea. Only about ten percent of the site has been uncovered - there is so much more but probably not the huge buildings that are in the main part that we visited. And the setting is beautiful. It's a rain forest with rivers and waterfalls and monkeys and the whole deal! Wonderful. I'm looking forward to going back for a second look tomorrow.

There is a museum a short walk away from Mayabell and we've been there twice. Some of the photos are taken there of the artifacts that were recovered during the excavation of the site. Cool stuff. Neither Mike or I have ever seen anything like these ruins and it is really a wonderful experience.

And we bought a monkey there - as shown in the photo. He's called "Maya". Monkeys here are a big deal. There are monkeys in the trees around Mayabell - howler monkeys! And boy do they howl. It's almost more like a roar!! And there are tucans and parrots and it's just too cool. Funky people and there's a pool with water diverted from, and back into, the river nearby. And good food - all for fifteen bucks a night. Great place!

But now to the ruins at Yaxchilan.......