Mexico (Part 11) Palenque, Mayan Ruins Museum
The next morning after breakfast it was back on the highway flagging down a “colectivo” to head back to the ruins. This time it was to the museum at the entrance to the park. The museum was great. It was very well done.
Musuem grounds, Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
Checking out one of the artifacts in the musuem
Inside the Mayan Musuem in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
We spent the morning at the musuem then caught a “colectivo” back to hotel, checked out, said goodbye to the hotel staff and took a taxi to the bus station in town.
Checking out of the Chan-Kah Resort Village
The bus station is open air, small, hot, and crowded with locals and backpackers.
Passengers in the bus station waiting to buy tickets
From inside the bus station in Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
We had arrived early, so had extra time. I walked down the street, found a little store, and bought us some water and cookies to tide us over on bus.
Carol waiting to board the bus for San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
At 2 p.m. we left on the 5 hour bus trip from Palenque to San Cristóbal de las Casas.
Next-the winding road to San Cristóbal de las Casas
BTW-If you want to check out some really neat stuff about what is happening on the redesigned Newsok.com then you need to check out Alan Herzberger’s update here
View 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/
Mexico(Part 3)-Villahermosa-Speak Spanish and bring Pesos!
Mexico-Chiapas, Tabasco & the Mayan Ruins of Palenque-cont’d
Unfortunately, there was a major accident on the highway leading from the Villahermosa airport to downtown and we got tied up in a HUGE traffic jam. I watched the time tick by and knew we had missed our 7:30 pm. bus. Unfortunately, I had purchased my bus tickets on-line from the U.S. for the 4:30 p.m. bus so now we had missed two buses. However, before leaving the states I was in telephone contact with my daughter, Stephanie who was advising me as to my options on alternate bus times through the website:
So, I knew there was only one more bus at 9 p.m. that night to Palenque. At 8 p.m. we arrived at the Villahermosa bus station, shook hands with our new best friends, Bruno and his wife, and went inside. It was raining outside, hot inside, and it was a packed, noisy, chaotic bus station with long lines. I finally made it to the ticket window and gave the clerk my reservation number. She spoke no English but my Spanish was passable enough. She told me I had forfeited my original prepaid ticket because I had missed the bus, but she would sell me 2 seats on the 9 p.m. At that point we only wanted to be on our way so agreed to buy two tickets and didn’t argue. They were only $5.50 each.
The neat thing about the Mexican bus system is you get to select your seats at the time of purchase. I selected seats 9 & 10—don’t ask me why, they just looked like good seats! I pulled out my Visa to pay and was told: “we don’t accept credit cards (in Spanish of course). I offered to pay in US Dollars—nope, don’t accept those either! Fortunately, I had stashed a few pesos that were left over from a previous trip to Mexico 3 years ago into my backpack before we left home. It was enough to pay for the tickets.
BTW-I will be adding some interesting photos to these blogs on the trip to Palenque and San Cristobal de las Casas so don’t lose patience with me!
Next-The Villahermosa waiting room! Carol needs pesos for the bathroom!
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 1)-A trip to Chiapas, Tabasco, & the Mayan ruins of Palenque
This will start a series of blogs about a recent trip my wife Carol, and I took to the Mayan ruins of Palenque in the state of Chiapas, Mexico which we combined with a week of Spanish school in the picturesque town of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the southern Mexican mountains.
The state of Chiapas is the southermost state in Mexico and shares the border with Guatemala. It is known as the “Mayan Route” because so many people visit the many Mayan sites that run all the way up through the Yucatan.
Carol was anticipating a nice leisurely plane ride, being picked up by a driver to be driven between towns, taxis, etc…….WRONG!…This would be a trip of planes, buses, catching colectivo vans along the highway and washing our clothes by hand along the way. My motto: “travel light and quick”.
“He who would travel happily must travel light.”
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)
So grab your backpack and let’s go to Mexico!!
The trip started out from OKC with only carry-on luggage on American Airlines connecting in Mexico City to Mexicana airlines for a flight to Villahermosa in the state of Tabasco where we were to catch a bus to Palenque in Chiapas for a couple of days, then another bus to San Cristóbal to spend 5 days.
Things could not have gone worse starting with a mechanical delay in OKC and having to switch to the next flight, making it to DFW only to have that flight leave late, causing us to miss our connection in Mexico City. We had to traverse the airport in Mexico City 3 times between Aeromexico, Mexicana, and American Airlines trying to get a flight to make it to Villahermosa to catch a bus to Palenque. We were told all flights out of Mexico City were sold out for the rest of the day. Mexicana told us we would have no chance of getting out on either of their last two flights of the day, even on standby.
A very long story in short is that we pleaded(ok, begged), half in Spanish and half in English, with the Mexicana gate agent to get us on a flight so we could get to Villahermosa that night in order to catch a bus to Palenque. At the last minute she gave us two seats and we were on the plane, but absolutely exhausted from the ordeal in the airport.
Next-The flight to Villahermosa and a stranger on the plane offers us a ride–
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/
