Welcome to the Jungle,..

We scooted the last hour or so up to Palenque, collecting another hundred topes or so. I guess we can't really complain that it's raining in the rainforest, particularly as Elvis hadn't had a shower in 3 months (yes, he does smell a bit now!). We relaxed under the awning and it cleared up enough for an afternoon dip in the pool.

The place is surrounded by jungle and the howler monkeys came into the trees, just out of sight but create an enormous racket by grunting out some primeval taunt. It was pretty scary to hear the jungle roar like that. These sounds combined with the firefly light show almost made you feel like you were in the 'upside down' (Stranger Things fans will know what I mean.)

In the morning we headed into the archeological zone, only a few metres up from our camp site. As dogs are never allowed we very luck enough to leave Maya with Josh & Chantelle. Palenque is special as it's the local capital of the more northern Mayan ruins, and it's set deep in the jungle. We nearly didn't come here (we had changes to plans because of dental work) but boy are we glad that we did.

We started exploring small clusters of housing and pyramids as we wound our way up the heavily rainforested hillside, and at the top there's an impressive set of temples. These are Mayan style and have some amazing engravings still intact. The beauty of this site is added to by its lush environment and its view over the flat jungle rooftop and of course the Howler Monkey sound track.Read more