Palanque to Villahermosa

We planned to go to the ruins of Palanque today so we woke up early so that we could arrive when they opened, and be back in enough time to check out of our hostel by 11. We had some left over pastries (savory and sweet) from last nights dinner that we had put in the fridge for todays lunch, but when I went to get it from the community fridge someone had taken them over night. Darn those hostel kids! I guess we somewhat expected that but since we had taken 1-2 bites out of each we figured they would be safe. Guess drunk kids (or sober) don't mind germs. Oh well, that just meant we needed to make a quick stop at the store before heading to the ruins.
Palanque's ruins are stunning. Set in the middle of a beautiful jungle, the ruins look like something out of a movie. Dated back to 226BC, the original ruins are still in excellent shape though the park has done much work to keep them looking so. What is interesting about this ruin sight is that the Temple of the Inscriptions (the bigger, more pristine temple in the pics below), was (or still is?) home to the body of the famous ruler Pacal the Great who's body was just found in the last decade or so. The layout of the ruins are quite interesting, and as it turns out each floor of the ruins are blocked off in order to disguise any passage way to get to the floor below. So basically, it would be a maze to get to the bottom floor as each floor is made to be this way. The concept is to keep burglars away from tombs as kings and rulers were buried with riches of their time. Well, thats one way to do it I guess. It worked rather well as it took us up to this decade to find the Pacal at all.

 Example of how they break through walls in order to discover tombs, etc.

Lunch break with a nice view

 Trinkets sold at every corner. These are actually quite popular among the tour bus crowd.

 

After the ruins we went back to our hostel to grab our stuff, load up the bike, and then started heading towards Villahermosa which would be about a 2 hour drive. It was about 3 or so when we got there, so we got some snacks and lounged by the pool which we had completely to ourselves for the next few hours. After dinner and a shower, it was time to start packing for our flight the following day. Man, these trips go by fast!

Villahermosa hotel room

 tuc tuc as they call them. I'm thinking it would be nice to trade in the bike for this bad boy, though it might take us 11 years to reach our destination!