Palenque: Jungle and Ruins

Arriving in Palenque, we recovered from the exhausting bus ride in the hotel pool and enjoyed the sun - luckily, as the following two days were filled with rain. We were surprised by the first rain shower while visiting the impressive Mayan ruins of Palenque. It was much quieter and less touristy compared to Tulum. This time, we were able to explore the temple ruins and climb stairs or even go inside and walk through dark rocky corridors. I wondered how people lived there back then... too bad we can't time travel. The place has such a magical atmosphere that makes you wish you could turn back time and imagine how the Mayans lived there, right in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by rainforest. That made the place even more mysterious. From one of the ruins, we had a great view of the surroundings. Suddenly, it started pouring heavily. We didn't have any rain protection with us, so we ran to the nearest tree. We fought our way towards the exit, but the rain didn't stop. Our last shelter from the rain was a small roof at the edge of a ruin, under which two local boys were already seeking refuge. We started talking and with our limited Spanish, we learned that their names were Octavio and Amin, they were 16 and 17 years old, went to school nearby, and worked as vendors at the ruins, selling souvenirs. They gave us a small fish made of stone as a gift. Then they showed us the necklaces they were selling, with different Maya symbols depending on the zodiac sign or birth date. We bought some from them for 30 pesos each (1.50€). Since the rain didn't stop, we eventually ran towards the exit and hopped into a taxi, completely soaked. On the next day, we took a tour to the waterfalls. We went there with a minivan. We reached the first waterfall pretty quickly, after about 30 minutes of driving. The second one took us about 2 hours, maybe even longer. We drove through mountains and beautiful landscapes, passing by small villages. The people there lived in very simple conditions, and the drive to waterfall number 2 was an adventure for me. The road is supposedly quite dangerous to drive alone, with many robberies occurring, which is why we decided to go on a guided tour. On the side of the road in the villages, locals would offer little snacks like bananas, nuts, or other snacks, hoping that hungry tourists would pass by. At one point, teenagers even put a string across the road, trying to sell us bananas and wanting us to stop. Out of reflex, I would have braked immediately, but the driver sped up, so the kids took the string down just in time. When we arrived, the minibus was surrounded by painted women who wanted to sell us bananas and dried banana chips. They practically swarmed us when we got off, and we bought a pack of banana chips from them for 10 pesos. The waterfalls were huge and breathtaking. Being surrounded by this wonderful nature completely amazed me. So Palenque, or rather the surroundings, was my personal highlight of Mexico. :-) We were very tired on the way back. In the evening, we continued our journey with the night bus to Merida.