Into the wild Palenque
February 10 in Mexico ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We stayed the past three days in Palenque in the state of Chiapas. We slept in a cabin in the nature, hosted by La Ventana (ig: palenquelaventana). In that place live Benjamin and Nancy with their 3 children. There is no electricity in the place except for few sockets and wifi is turned on only for few hours in the evening. The bathrooms are compost-based so the impact on the environment is minimal. The family cultivates almost all the food they eat (delicious), moreover they try to preserve biodiversity. We tried 3 different types of bananas that I haven’t seen in any other place. During our stay we had a very nice discussion with a guy (Johali) who gives courses on how to produce and extract honey from native bees. He works in partnership with la Ventana. When we met him, he was building wooden boxes for his bees. He showed us all the different types of bees that established in that place. All of them are native bees from Mexico that he is trying to reintroduce in the environment. He learned all by himself and it was a pleasure to listen to him and discuss about the indigenous communities in Chiapas and how they try to preserve their way of living far away from the capitalistic world. We also found out that in the rural villages around us alcohol is prohibited and people follow the rules of the village. There is basically no trust in the government and law enforcement so people make their own rules. As an example if someone comes in the village completely drunk disturbing the inhabitants, he will get fined and “arrested” closed in a cabin until he is sober.
Benjamin and Nancy also shared a special mayan dance and ritual with us that they do every sunday ( I think) to call their ancestors and connect with the pachamama. It was an amazing experience to see this different type of life.
We also went to see the mayan ruins in Palenque, which were beautiful!
Next destination: San Cristobal de las casas
Extra: I have added a photo of the crocodile we saw swimming in the cenote and Harold trying scuba for the first time helped by Julian.Read more