In case you haven’t been paying attention to the whole Mayan calendar/end of the world thing, Palenque is the site where the calendar indicating December 21, 2012 as the date of the end of the world was discovered. Thus, although it is not the largest of the Mayan ruins, it was the prime pilgrimage target for people of all sorts to converge in anticipation of the big event. We considered ourselves lucky to NOT be at Palenque in the days running up to D-Day. Rumor had it that upwards of 50,000 people would be thronging the site, including a large group of folks who call themselves the Rainbow Gathering (google it and check out some of the photos). Comments on other blogs suggested that this was true and that conditions in and around the ruins were pretty scary – rain combined with too many people and inadequate sanitation was leading to a lot of illness.
Having said all that, however, we still felt that Palenque itself was something we couldn’t miss seeing. Hoping that 6 days post-end-of-the-world would be enough for most of the disappointed revelers to have cleared out, we left San Cristobal on the morning of the 27th. Although it is only 190 km from San Cristobal to Palenque, it is a serious mountain crossing with very windey roads and many, many topes – it took about 7 hours of driving to make the trip. We camped at Maya Belle, inside the park limits and only about a 2 km walk to the park entrance. Our gamble paid off – everything was still a mud bog but there was plenty of space available for all the vehicles, still lots of people around but not too crowded, and relatively clean bathrooms that smelled of bleach (such a great smell – makes me feel like things are cleaner even if they’re not 🙂 ).
Early morning Palenque
Bryan and I got up early the next morning to be at the gate when the park opened since I wanted to be able to get some photos of the ruins before a ton of people started swarming all over them. That plan worked out well and we actually had a nice quiet walk around without a lot of company. I was able to get some good pics of what are truly some awesome ancient structures.
Palenque
Once we had seen our fill, there was little left to keep us hanging out in the mud bog so the  STT crew and Tranquilos packed up and headed out together for the Yucatan peninsula and Campeche where I now sit. We’ve been here 2 days at a strangely deserted health club/resort called Club Nautico that also allows RV parking. We are almost the only people here besides the staff and have the beautiful infinity pool overlooking the ocean all to ourselves!
Infinity pool in Campeche. Cost= $30 US, view=priceless
LongroadSTT 