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Palenque, Mexico Day 2-Visit "La Venta" Museum/Park.  We boarded vans at 9:30  at our Hotel Cencali in Villahermosa after an 8:00 breakfast in the hotel. As we left for the Museum, we had a terrific downpour, so we went on a short city tour and past a cathedral in town.  Finally on to a guided morning tour of La Venta Museum where we saw colossal remains of IV Century Olmec carved heads  weighing 20 tons and measuring 2.7 meters high.  Many references in stone to the jaguar, but there are only jaguars on the frontier today.  All the artifacts were in an outside park.  Alberto, (blue shirt) our guide, pointed to a tree with red, peeling bark and jokingly said it was called the 'tourist tree.'  The people who inhabited this area were short, 1.5 meters, but stout.

Next we had a three-hour afternoon transfer to Chiapas with a lunch stop of quesadillas at "Fiesta Tabasca" in Tabasco.  The trip looked like a trip through southern Indiana as far as vegitation was concerned, except for occasional coconut palm trees.   No row crops, but Brahma cattle grazed in extensive pastures.  A feight train passed in the rain and I observed many hobos on the top, valve section, of each tank car. Our driver, Hector, said they were illegal immigrants from Guatemala.  Is the world-wide direction to a better life, North?! (Is it different south of the Equator?)  We arrived at the Chan-Kah Hotel Resort, which is surrounded by exquisite jungle flora and fauna, at 4:30 in a good downpour.  In a dry, open-air shelter we received our room assignments.   We opened our suitcases and took out rain gear and umbrellas.  We found our excellent bungalows and relaxed until dinner at 7 pm.  I had tried to send a reassuring fax to my wife from Villahermosa, without success, so sent it from the jungles for $18.90!  It was worth it because I hadn't been able to tell her I was safely in Mexico.  Some found the Internet available at an office behind the reception desk.  I would use the Internet the next evening.

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Fiesta Tabasco Roadhouse

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Quesadilla lunch
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Raining in the rain forest.
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My bungalow in the jungle.



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All bungalow rooms have 2 rocking chairs each.
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On my porch, high and dry...almost.

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It takes lots of rain to feed these large green plants.
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Chan-Kah Hotel Resort


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