Palenque

After countless hours of intense persuasion I was able to pull Chad away from the coast and towards the Mayan ruins of Palenque, Mexico. This was by far the most sketchy and politically unstable part of the journey to date. The state of Chiapas has been hesitant to comply with Capitalist Mexico for a number of years and we were able to personally experience a bit of this intensity. After driving for a few hours we reached a huge line of trucks and assumed that there was an accident ahead. After using our limited Spanish Chad was able to figure out that there was a massive road block. Apparently some of the local town people block the road randomly for hours because they feel that this road has ruined their town. Some of the truck drivers
signaled for us to go around all the trucks on an alternate 4-wheel drive necessary road. As you can imagine Chad jumped at this idea and proceeded to pass all the cars on the main road. Unfortunately Chad's eagerness and over confidence in the trusty "burb" got the best of him. As we were about to pass the end of the road block Chad attempted to plow over a huge log that was blocking the road. The rear differential got hung up on the log and we were forced to stop. About 40 Mexican men ran over to the car and were staring at us and the car. A couple of the guys were trying to be helpful while the other 35 guys just stared and laughed. After jacking up the burb and pulling the log out Chad gave the two guys that helped a cerveza and we were on our way. This was only the beginning of the crazy Mexican roadblocks and the constant verbal abuse from Chad for making him go to this sketchy area.

The next day we embarked on the remainder of the journey towards Palenque. During this drive Chad had a bit of a breakdown over the horrible roads and insisted that I "see what it is like". I have to admit that the curb sized topes every 50 feet are beyond frustrating. I became the slow driving Mexican that Chad hates, so as you can imagine within about 10 miles Chad insisted on taking over the wheel. Secretly I was appreciative, however I would never let Chad know this. During my brief time driving we experienced our second roadblock. This time there were about 40 men with a 2 by 6 wood plank with nails in it laid across the road. They wanted $20 in exchange for using "their" road. They concocted a story about a person in their town dying on this road so they needed money. We later found out that this is a ploy they use a couple days a week to get money from people. We were able to talk them down to $5 which was quite the deal considering other gringos we met paid anywhere from $10-$20. The remainder of the road consisted of ladies and their children holding strings across the road to attempt to stop traffic. They were selling things such as bananas, nuts and drinks and this was their attempt to get people to buy their goods. Clearly their idea was not as refined as the spike strip gentlemen, however we bought some bananas so we could show the rest of the roadblock ladies that we already had ample supply (probably the best bananas we have ever had might I add). We finally arrived at the incredible jungles of Palenque at about 10:00 pm which was quite the relief after the crazy day of driving.

We stayed in a log cabin in the middle of the jungle and were awoken by the incredibly load sounds of the howler monkeys. The sound was so intense that I was convinced that there was a lion outside of the cabin. Chad assured me that it was just a monkey and after speaking with a local he assured me that Chad was correct. We spent the day exploring the incredible Mayan ruins which made the crazy car journey worth it. These huge structures were built about 2000 years ago and are still intact. Pretty unbelievable!!! We climbed to the top of some of the pyramids which was somewhat scary and exhausting. I can only imagine what it would have been like to actually build all these structures carrying a few stones up at a time. We walked around the ruins with a few English guys that are traveling the world together. Meeting these so called "normal" guys was a nice change after all the interesting characters we have been meeting along the way. Later that evening Chad insisted on going into town to fulfill his shopping urges. He spent 2 hours (NO
JOKE) shopping for boots. I told him that he is clearly with the wrong girl because his shopping skills were way better than mine. He ended up with some awesome crocodile skin boots and was happier than a little boy in a candy store. For those of you coming to visit you better start preparing yourself now for Chad's new look!

Day 28 was our last full day in Mexico. We spent half the day at Agua Azul which is a limestone river with a bunch of waterfalls and swimming holes. As the name implies, this was the most incredible colored water I have ever seen. For those of you that have seen the water in Switzerland, this is the same thing but in the jungle. Although the place was a bit touristy we were able to get away from the crowds by hiking to the top of the highest waterfall. There were two rope swings at the top which dropped you into a deep aquamarine swimming hole. It was absolutely picturesque! The day got even better when I was mistaken for a model. Ok, that's a bit of a lie, but a 60 year old man asked if he could take a picture with me in my bathing suit. His wife took the picture and Chad stood off to the side laughing. Chad is now convinced this happens to me all the time :). Who cares that he was sixty, right?