Monday, January 17, 2011

Day 15: Comitan to Palenque - Monday November 22, 2010

We had a leisurely departure from Comitan. It is a pleasant, prosperous and orderly town. Unfortunately, we had to opt out of visiting the Maya Medicine Museum, etc. We just ran out of time for today’s targets.

On the way to Palenque, we were stopped 6 times: 4 by the military, 2 of which involved a cursory search of the car, and 2 road closing protest by the indigenous people demanding that their grievances be heard -- less exploitation & more services. I got into a sometime heated and sometime friendly discourse with the protesters. As a dyed in the wool motorist, I believe in the unobstructed flow of traffic. But that seems to be the way of protest in the Catholic countries, including France & Italy. Chiapas seems to be going through a tough civil time.

The drive itself gave us one window into contemporary rural Mayan life. As usual, the scenery was magnificent, particularly with a 6,000 variance in elevation – from tropical pine forests, to Hotel Chan Ka in the jungle. Chan Ka is a wonderful faded timepiece from the 1950s with all the amenities of a then high end resort.

Tomorrow: 2 hours in the developed Palenque and 2 hours in the jungle where hundreds of sites remain to be excavated. We will end up in jungle waterfall & pool for a swim.

Wednesday: 6 AM departure for an all day excursion to Yaxchilan & Bonampak -- including travel by boat. These are so remote that we happily changed our plans & will stay at Chan Ka for 3 nights.

Notes:

We were on the road nearly from 9-5, including some 2 hours for the road action & lunch. I have covered about 4,000. This adventure may last longer then anticipated as long as I am having fun.

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