In our virtual tour through Mexico, we will go to one of the amazing places to explore and its main attraction being the ruins of the city. This site hosts a magic fusion of history and nature. In the state of Chiapas, but out of the mountains are hidden San Cristobal de las Casas and San Juan Chamula and closer and the Riviera Maya is Palenque, with its brutal archaeological site in the middle of the jungle.

Photography by SN#1

Archaeological ruins of Palenque:

You can reach Palenque San Cristobal de las Casas with a local travel agency that can help us with the two-day package tour in which we can include a visit to the waterfalls of Agua Azul and Misol-Ha, the ruins Maya of Palenque and sleep on site accommodation and the next day visiting the ruins of Bonampaq and Yaxchilan.

Traveled by road to the ruins of Palenque:

The road from San Cristobal de las Casas to Palenque is the only possible path from one city to another, and is a hell of curves and bumps. The stops are hillocks of tar about 20 cm high and 10-20 cm long, the government has placed on the road to respect speed limits on tickets to people in dangerous curves in lines too long or any other place where you can annoy any vehicle. More than one stop per mile on this road, so we suggest you go on a conveyance as comfortable as possible.

Photography by Tjeerd

Pyramid of the writings of Palenque:

If you are in Mexico City. There you can visit the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico, which is one of the most spectacular and modern museums in the country. The museum has an entire floor dedicated to Palenque and its mythical king Pacal. In where you can also see a huge Egyptian sarcophagus that looked half his mummy jade mask (that street vendors trying to sell you in all of Mexico), jewelry and photos of what we find in Palenque.

The story goes that Palenque was one of the largest cities of the Mayan culture rivaling the Calakmul, and Copan also great. Palenque could be towards 100 BCE with the name of Ha Lakam Maya Palenque was said that housed more than 1000 pyramids and almost one million inhabitants, when the city was totally abandoned in the sixteenth century because of excessive consumption of natural resources and deforestation area excessive rain, which caused drought and floods are continuing. Palenque was «discovered» by the Spanish in the eighteenth century when the forest and had hidden. The amazing part is that so far discovered Palenque surface does not become 10% and all the great mountains that are within the forest are pyramids that have been engulfed by nature and probably never again see the light the sun.

The Palace of the ruins of Palenque:

In the Mayan ruins of Palenque highlights its entrance, where it appears directly on the Grand Place with the awesome Pyramid of the Inscriptions, where they found the bodies of the great king of the dynasty of Palenque Pakal and his mother’s body. The pyramid is named for the large number of inscriptions have been found inside, which tells the story of the dynasties of Palenque. During the 50’s were doing more studies to find the body of Pakal, and found a secret staircase leading down to the inside of the pyramid to the burial crypt and the great sarcophagus of Pakal nearly two meters below ground level.

Palenque Palace is an administrative building of the ancient city, but with great artistic value for their reliefs and figures. From the pyramid or temple of the lion you can see a very good view of what is the archaeological site of Palenque and what should have been in his time, when one looks into the lush jungle just hear the screams of howler monkeys. To learn more about the place we suggest renting a phone for 3 hours for them to count each one of the structures of the archaeological zone and all Mayan legends.

Photography by Jami Dwyer

Where to stay and eat in Palenque?

To sleep, Palenque no better place to sleep on the Panchen, a jungle area that exists between the present city of Palenque and the ancient city. In the Panchen there are various possibilities of accommodation, from hotels to campsites; most have cabins or houses with apartments varying luxury inside. However, the experience of sleeping in this kind of resort community in the jungle is very special in this place to play in the magical Mayan ruins. Within the complex of the Panchen is the legendary restaurant where they congregate Don Most (almost) all the tourists who go to bed in the area for dinner and evening shows, which consist of live music from dusk to some games and juggling Fire to close the night and invite all tourists to sleep. The food served is not the best that can be tested in Mexico, but is a highly recommended place to spend the night enjoying the show before coming to the cabin a dark forest, where hundreds or thousands of animals you are watching.

Good Luck!