Mexico (Part 5)-Palenque and a beautiful hotel-Chan-Kah!
18 hours after leaving Oklahoma City, we finally arrived at a very small bus station in Palenque, Chiapas around midnight. As late as it was, there was a crowd of people boarding a few other
all-night buses to far away destinations that had names I couldn’t even pronounce.
We found a taxi in front of the station and agreed on the fare of $4 (40 pesos) and away we went, 20 minutes down the highway through the countryside. When we arrived at Chan-Kah Resort Village near the Mayan ruins there was only a desk clerk and a security guard, neither of which spoke English, but we managed to get everything set up and get to our rooms.
Chan-Kah Resort Village is set is a jungle like setting with lots of little casitas spread out in the trees. Here are some photos:
Look at the vegetation growing from the roof of our room
Our sitting porch outside our room
Here are some pics of the walkway through the property. You can click on them to enlarge
The room was large and very simple. We were pleased. We agreed that we had chosen a wonderful property. Take a look at their web site:
Since we were traveling so light, the first thing we did was wash our clothes by hand and hoped they would dry in the humidty. This was all part of the master plan: travel light and wash our clothes as we went. Once you get used to this system, you will never want to travel any other way–At least I don’t!!
I have to admit, my biggest fear about this trip was: would Carol be able to stand up to the rigors of traveling light, quick, washing clothes by hand, buses, language barriers, and be able to deal with the uncertainties and challenges of a trip like this? So far, she had received an A+. It only gets better from here!
Next-The Mayan ruins of Palenque! Incredible!
See my other travel blogs on NewsOk.com:
Colombia:http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/colombia/ Mexico:http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/mexico/
Caribbean island of Barbuda: http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/barbuda/
San Juan with a 5 hour layover: http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/san-juan-puerto-rico/
Fly around the U.S. for the day: http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/day-trip/
Mexico (Part 4)-Villahermosa-ready to leave!
We went into the packed waiting room of the Villahermosa bus station-it was obvious, we were the only gringos there. By this time we were exhausted. We had been traveling 14 hours.Our original plans had us having a nice leisurely dinner in Palenque by this time of night, but we were still 3 hours away.
I decided we had better call the hotel, the Chan-Kah Resort Village, and let them know we would be late. I had the phone number but I couldn’t make the call go through on my cell phone. Finally, I asked two guys sitting behind to help me. They spoke no English. In Spanish, I told them what I was trying to do and showed them the phone number. They started crossing out unnecessary numbers and told me to try the new combination—it worked!!
When the hotel answered the phone I could not understand anything they were saying in Spanish. I finally just stated my problem and on the other end I heard “no problema”. I knew I had gotten my point across!
Inside the waiting room was a little tiny convenience counter that sold some snacks. I bought some water and cookies. In the Villahermosa bus station we ate the romantic dinner we had previously planned to eat in Palenque……cookies and water! Life was good!
Inside the Villahermosa bus station-It’s crowded!
Carol went to use the restroom and came back telling me there was a charge of 3 Pesos to use it. I was running low on Pesos so I had to tell her to quit drinking water!! It was time to board the bus.
Villahermosa bus station-boarding the bus
At 9 p.m. we boarded our bus and were finally on the way to Palenque. I immediately struck up a conversation (in Spanish, of course) with the guy sitting across from me and found out that Villahermosa is the city that was almost completely underwater 8 months ago. They have done a marvelous job in cleaning it up. You never would have known.
Next-Headin’ for Palenque town!
See my other travel blogs on NewsOk.com:
Colombia:http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/colombia/ Mexico:http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/mexico/
Caribbean island of Barbuda: http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/barbuda/
San Juan with a 5 hour layover: http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/san-juan-puerto-rico/
Fly around the U.S. for the day: http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/day-trip/
