We spent Thursday night in Palenque in a very nice hotel, The Hotel Chablis. After a beer on our patio overlooking the jungle we had dinner in an open air restaurant next door and had the best meal so far. I had soup and a garlic rubbed grilled fish and Duke had a mixed grill. I can't remember the Spanish name for it but it included some wonderful steak and plantains. After dinner we went for a walk. Duke thought about climbing these vines.
The ruins at Panenque are just a few miles south of the town where the mountains start to rise from the plains of the Yucatan peninsula. The mountain jungle setting made them very different from all the other ruins that we have seen. We were there fairly early which was good because it was already hot. We climbed around and enjoyed ourselves. I was especially impressed with the magnitude of Palenque.
The museum at Palenque had things found at the site. I liked this timeless Mom.
Driving south from Palenque into the mountains the roads became very windy. There was no way we could be in a hurry. We stopped first at the Misol-Ha Waterfall. It was very high and beautiful. We hiked up behind it
Next we stopped at the Aqua Azul waterfall. it is very different. Duke was here many years ago and there were only a couple of people and no vendors. When we were at the falls there were a lot of people and many many vendors.
We also stopped to buy some shirts from a road side vendor. The children were fascinated.
We spent Friday night in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. It is a big town. We walked around the square, had a good dinner and got on the road early to drive to Oaxaca. The drive to Oaxaca was long. Some of it was on very good toll roads and some of it was on very windy mountain roads. We did stop and buy some Mezcal along the way.
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