WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

(FK) One of the main reasons we were keen to come to Mexico, other than to eat our body weight in tacos, were the mystical Mayan ruins. Having recently watched the 'Ancient Aliens' series on Sky, I was brimming with excitement and intrigue about Maya culture and the many theories about their civilisations. Yes I am a geek. 

A guy we met in the Barefoot Hostel in Mexico City, James, suggested we should go to Palenque and stay at Margareta's and Ed's. This recommendation turned out to be one of the best we've had so far. We have to come to realise that one person's idea of a fantastic must see, is not always ours and that we can't actually see and do absolutely everything. Anyway that was a lesson learnt by the time we got to Cancun, having seen and done everything that was mentioned to us, but we'll come onto that later. 

Armed with just a name we drove into the state of Chiapas and followed signs for the ruins. As we came to the National Park gates I noticed a sign for the cabanas pointing in the direction of the jungle down a sandy path. As we turned the corner, it was like being transported into a secret rainforest never land. I was like a giddy kipper, this was the kind of place I'd been hoping we'd find, bit of a hippy vibe, couple of places to stay with cheap cabanas and a shack bar and restaurant, all set into and merged with the forest.                          

Margareta and Ed's Cabanas

Margareta was a no nonsense, warm Mexican lady who had spent time living in the US with her family, but was keen to settle back into her homeland. Boy can she talk, even I was outdone! After showing us around we opted for a basic (but clean and comfortable) cabana for a couple of nights and it was so good to relax for a couple of days having been on the road constantly. 

So like proper Brits abroad we went for a few beers. Palenque attracts some interesting characters, I was in my people watching element. When you are hopping from one place to the next, conversations with people you meet are a little like ground hog day. "So where are from? Where have you come from? How long have you been travelling for? Where are you going to next?" As you know, I love to talk, but even I was getting bored listen to my own voice! That changed when we met Ben, Moon and Sebastian. People we have met on the way have thought that what we are doing is a pretty mental adventure but some people make it look like a two week all inclusive package with Thomas Cook. 

Ben, who is from Cornwall originally, has been travelling around for the last five years, often with next to no money, but gets by with selling hand made crafts, working in exchange for digs and generally knows all the tricks to see and do what he wants without spending a penny and has just learnt to live with the basics. We have not met nicer, more genuine people in a long time, despite Ben being on a seven day fast (day five when we met him), him and Moon gave a great Spanish lesson and told us bits about their adventure. This included building a raft in the British Virgin Isles made from unwanted junk (including some bits from Richard Branson's Necar Island) and sailing it around the Caribbean all the way to Venezuela (dickbrano.blogspot.mx). They told us about places that weren't necessarily on the backpackers route, one of which was a Middlesborough gent and his floating island off the Isle Mujeres. We hadn't  planned on going but that's the beauty of having a car and loose schedule. Anyway back to ruins. We decided to do a whistle stop tour of the main ones that had caught our eye.

Palenque
We got up early to beat the heat and the crowds and what an amazing (I'll try and use this sparingly!) experience. Me and Neil aren't sure if it was because it was our first Maya ruins, but whatever it was, this is one special place. Set in lush rain forest, the many temples and pyramids are huge and packed tightly together. 

The main palace

Temple of the Sun

They can still all be climbed, which we since found out is a rarity with ruins. It is believed that Palenque is actually the main centre of Maya culture in the Yucatan Peninsula, it definitely has an energy and spirit like no where I've been before. In true Neil style, we had some races to the top, not for the feint hearted or those suffering from vertigo!  

Reps after a sprint to the top!

Step race

The path through the ruins is topped off by a walk through the forest following waterfalls and Mayan bathing pools.

The queen's bath

Uxmal
This site was very different to Palenque, set in lower land it was more arid and warm, but very impressive nevertheless. The Maya people may have deserted the city over 1000 years ago, but in their place it is now home to hundreds of iguana. Reincarnation anyone? It didn't quite have the Palenque magic, perhaps that was the hoards of US tourists, but the buildings are beautiful and ornate and give a real sense  of the civilisation, its grandeur and architectural might. 

The step race to end them all!

But what does it mean?

Arty, farty in Uxmal

Before hitting our next ruins we stopped of at a Cenote, a freshwater sinkhole that are considered sacred by the Maya with some having an unknown depth.  Luckily we could camp at this one and we ended up having the place all to ourselves, a rarity considering most of them have been made into mini theme parks. A sunset dip was intruded upon by hundreds of swallows who did a few circles above us before flying off into the night. It was incredible, we felt like we were in a David Attenborough documentary (except we had jazzy life vests on which were compulsory).

I'm pretending it's not cold and really dark water

Where's my cocktail Niles?

Chichen Itza 
The most famous of all the ruins and fondly referred to as 'chicken pizza'. Unfortunately, like its fast food namesake, it was over priced and left you feeling a little unfulfilled. To be honest, after three ruins in the space of 4 days, we were feeling ruined. 

Apocalypto style head rolling temple

The famous serpents 

The main temple was huge and very impressive and fed the imagination with images of human sacrifice as too was the largest known ball court, but the tat sellers outnumbered the tourists ( and there were loads of those too) and it just didn't do it for us. Maybe our expectations were too high, or we'd been spoiled with Palenque and Uxmal, but we were a little disappointed with one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

The beach was calling us!