Palenque Ruins

Palenque Ruins Day 3-Palenque Ruins. After breakfast at 6 of either Mexican eggs, fried eggs or scrambled eggs with toast or hot cakes. We left for the ruins at 8 a.m. Be sure to take the bottled water from your room, or buy water at the hotel restaurant, there are no restrooms nor water for sale inside the gate to the Palenque ruins. It was a short van ride to the magnificent Palenque ruins, thought to be the most aesthetically impressive ruins in Mesoamerica, being built from the 6th to the 8th centuries A.D. These ruins are especially impressive when you consider that the Mayan builders did not use the wheel or beasts of burden! Alberto related that this is the site where the famous mask made of 9 colors of jade was found. These Indians believed they were created from corn and blood. They believed in 3 levels of creation, like the 3 levels of vegetation in the jungle. They believe in reincarnation and when they died they went below ground and came back as gods. When you see the flower head dress in a stone figure from their palaces, it represents a god emerging from underground. Sue will provide you with a 2-page handout on Palenque in your tour packet so you can read the facts before you arrive, and therefore enjoy the guided tour employed for only our small group.

Photo tip: Take local license plate pictures to remember locations and spellings.	Sue (left) and our group's personal guide explaining Palenque site.
	Some forego the many steps.

	It was cute watching this young lady pose among the ruins for her young photographer boyfriend.
	Traditional doorway arch shape, without keystone.

	Local artwork on leather

After a full morning touring the Palenque Ruins, we took the vans to the nearby archeological museum to see artifacts from the ruins, then a local restaurant for lunch. Back at the Chan-Kah bungalows we had time to relax, and I worked with the many digital photos I had taken at the ruins. Another excellent dinner followed in the open-air hotel restaurant.

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