Palenque

We got up at 5.30am (!) for the much anticipated trip to Aguas Azul and Palenque. Palenque is the largest Mayan ruin in Mexico and was only discovered in 1972 in the jungle. The bus ride took hours and brought us from the mountains of St Cristobal to the jungle of Palenque. First stop was Aguas Azul (blue waters), a blue waterfall where you can swim in the clear blue waters – unfortunately as it is the rainy season it is more like Aguas Maron and much less inviting. The next waterfall Mina-Ha was awesome cos you could go behind it and as Al and I were especially prepared and efficient (Al's German side must have played a part in this) we had waterproof gear, hiking boots, bag covers – the lot, so we stayed nice and dry.

After 2 hours drive we reached Palenque and jumped eagerly out of the bus. I've been looking forward to Palenque for ages, it's set in the jungle and was only discovered recently because it was covered by plants and undergrowth. A whole civilisation was based here for hundreds of years and it's made up of pyramids which were either temples, houses or tombs. A local guide volunteered to take our group in both Spanish and English so off we went. He was a little old man and said that he had grown up near the site and had been studying it's history ever since it was discovered. He began by telling us to forget what we had read in the history books, because he could tell us the real story behind the temples. 'Ok great! we thought. He told us that many different civilisations had come to, and left their marks on the Mayans – the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Chinese, the Greeks, the south Asian countries... 'Ok...' we though, and agreed that it was highly unlikely that Cristopher Columbous was actually the first person to ever reach the Americas.

Things got a little more bizarre when he began to tell us that there was a sculpture of Tutenkahmun and Rameses II on the temples and began pointing out ancient Mayan engravings and drawings that were apparently Greek, Chinese or Asian in origin and even names that were Celtic in origin - hmmmm. He was even hinting at close encounters of the third kind. When someone asked him if he got his information from the internet he got a bit upset and said that 'www' stood for '666'... it was getting pretty bizarre by this point and Al and I realised that we had been listening to this gibberish for far too long and that we had to be back at the bus in 15 minutes and our 'guide' hadn't even shown us to the main temple and best site and view of Palenque. We arranged to meet him back at the entrance and ran up to the main temple literally running up these giant pyramid stairs. The view at the top was truly amazing and although we were rushing and out of breath it was still fantastic.

When there was just a couple of minutes to go before we had to go back to the minibus we heard a massive clap of thunder and the heavens opened for our first Mexican tropical storm. We ran into the pyramid for shelter but being 3000 years old there were obviously a couple of holes in the roof and we got soaked anyway. We decided we should get down and into the forrest but navigating down a 60 meter pyramid with polished stone steps is pretty impossible, I actually slipped on my first step down and could have been one of the final sacrifices to the gods had I not regained my balance and clung to Al for dear life.

After thanking the loco tour guide and making a mental note to read up on the real history behind Palenque in my spare time, we jumped in the van and sped off to the nearby town to catch our night bus to Tulum.

A few notes before I depart – it's rainy season here (yes, well-timed vix and al) so each day has ended with a huge downpour and thunder and lightening – all very exciting the first couple of times, but a real pain when it comes to not running out of dry clothes. I also wanted to make everyone aware of my current health status – Mexico is a great place to come instead of joining WeightWatchers or the like – unfortunately I have succumbed to Mexi-belly (or the 'Moctezuma's Curse') and have been surviving on bread, tortillas and cheese and nachos and guacamole for the last couple of days.

I am also happy to report that my Spanish is still improving. Since I have spent most of the last few days in buses I have a firm grasp of Spanish/Mexican road signs and the meanings of some vital words for drivers – Velocidad, la carreterra, topo, larges distancia – to name but a few.