Palenque

Our private van picked us up promptly at 5am.  We were supposed to take a public bus but that'd mean that we'll go all the way from St. Cristobal to Palenque, then get a separate private van to go to the waterfalls.  With the private van option, we had to pay another 250 pesos or about $14.20.  It saves us time and not having to go back and forth.

Until now we've been at places at higher elevation.  St. Cristobal is at 2,200m or about 7,200 ft high.  The days are nice, in the 70s' F, and the nights are cool, sometimes even cold, dropping into the 50s'.  From here onwards to Cancun, we'll be at lower elevation and mostly tropical areas.  You can see the change in vegetation.  You start seeing tropical trees like bananas, papayas, and some sugar-cane.

The first waterfall we stopped at is the Aqua Azul (means Blue Water) Waterfall.  It's a fairly large waterfall area and seems to attract a lot of Mexican tourists.  It actually consist of several waterfalls, some of which have pools of water below where people can swim.

Aquazul Waterfalls

A different part of the waterfall

Swimming in one of the ponds

Boy selling bananas to help the family

Making empanadas, 5 for 20 pesos

The next waterfall we went to is the Misol-Ha Waterfall, about an hour away.  This has a 30-foot drop waterfall.  You can walk behind it and up the steps you come to a small cave, where you have to pay money to get in.  We did not spend a lot of time here.

Misol-Ha Waterfall

Small cave next to the waterfall

We are still in the state of Chiapas.  As mentioned before, there are a lot of Indigenous People (IP) in this state.  They are mostly the descendants of the Mayans who ruled this area before the Spanish arrived, for thousands of years. So, why stop in Palenque?  Because there is a well-known Mayan ruin here.  Many tourists come here for the same reason although it's a little off the beaten path.  On the street where our hotel is, there are a few other touristy hotels and restaurants and I saw many foreign tourists here.

Hotel Xibalba, where we stayed in Palenque

 Unfortunately, I did not feel good when I arrived in Palenque.  I think it's an old sandwich that I ate on the way there.  Our tour leader told us that having stomach problem is a common thing, even among locals.  I've always been able to eat all kinds of street food but I think there may have been some old mayonnaise or stale cheese or ham in the sandwich.

The next day we were to go on a tour of the Palenque ruins, a Mayan ruin dating back to 400-700AD.  I tried braving it but about 2 hours into the tour, I gave up and went back to the hotel to rest.  I had to purge all the bad food from my system and rested most of that day and that evening.  Fortunately, I travel with different types of stomach medication just in case this type of thing happens.  I was able to recover slowly the next day.  Below are pictures of some of the ruins, before I left the tour:

The next morning we walk to the nearby bus station and took an Ado bus to our next destination:  Merida.