Four waterfalls and a funeral crypt

Hola from Pelanque, where we are sitting by the pool having a rest day. It’s 2pm and we’re just waiting for lunch to arrive - getting into the whole late breakfast, lunch, dinner thing although we still seem to be leaving when whole families arrive at 9.30/10pm to start eating!!!  So I thought I’d do a wee post while I was lounging about (although we all know I like to talk so it’s unlikely in fact to be ‘wee’)!

We had a slightly eventful bus trip to Oaxaca as I had inadvertently booked the wrong day, so we had to buy another ticket, leave a couple of hours later from a different station!! However we got there in one piece with just slightly sore bums.
Wow Oaxaca (actually said owaka, so no wonder none knew what I was talking about)! Really cool buildings in the historical area where we were staying, large paved streets, lots of markets and the obligatory dozen or so churches! We largely just wandered around for a few days exploring, enjoying some nice (although expensive for Mexico) restaurants. I met a retired Canadian woman in the pool who lives there for 5 months of the year over winter (been doing it for 5 years now) - she said there’s quite a large expat community and that she’s been to over 50 free performances (plays, opera, symphony etc) during the last 5 months. She rents nearby and has a deal to use the hotel pool - got us thinking…. hmmmmmmm.

As Oaxaca is at altitude, it’s hot during the day but cools off to 12-15 degrees at night, so you definitely need a wrap - makes it easier to sleep.

After a lovely couple of days, we really embraced the adventurous traveller theme by catching the bus to Pelanque via Villahermosa. The first leg was an 11.5 hr overnight trek to Villahermosa which ended up getting in about 1.5 hours late (13 hrs in total), so we had to race to our connecting bus instead of having a brief respite! However we got the ADO GL service which is their first class service. It was really comfortable, the seats almost completely reclined with calf and foot rest and although we couldn’t understand the movie, there were a couple of English language music channels. After popping a wee sleeping tablet I had quite a nice nap overnight and awoke reasonably refreshed. Onto the next bus which was a 15 seater and 3 hours later we arrived at the jungle town of Pelanque. And it was as if we were in Asia - big downfall - rained pretty much all day, very humid, 34 degrees. Luckily they had a room for us at 9am instead of the usual 3pm check-in.

It’s a funny hotel - out of town, on the edge of the jungle, it has certainly seen better days. It looks like they are in the process of renovating the whole place- with the dining area, bar and a lot of the internal grounds being done. However, the rooms definitely need a redo. Some of the lights not working, paint peeling off wall in bathroom and we discovered the balcony door was missing a hinge hence the scraping across the floor!  But it was ~nz$105/night including breakfast, so I guess we can’t complain too much. The bed is huge and comfy and it’s the strongest & hottest shower we’ve had since arriving in Mexico, so that’s a plus - the wifi is VERY iffy in the rooms, but good in the public areas, and I’m not sure what their definition of ‘cable tv’ but 32 channels in spanish with no subtitles is not ours. However as we don’t go out to dinner till 8, we’re not missing anything! However they do make THE best cocktails I've had in a while - I am quite addicted to their pina colada's & daiquiri's!!

Why go to Pelanque, Chiapas you ask? Well it has an amazing UNESCO World Heritage archeological site - an ancient Mayan city known for its well-preserved architecture and sculptural remains, including the iconic Temple of the Inscriptions and the Tomb of the Red Queen. It has been excavated out of the jungle and covers around 15km2 so far and is considered one the most outstanding examples of Mayan culture. So we jumped in a cab, bought our tickets (one for the site and one for the nature reserve it sits in), avoided the guides touting their services and the women & children proffering mayan-related trinkets, clasping our trusty Lonely Planet and started out self-directed tour. Four hours and what felt like thousands of steps later we emerged from the site, hot, tired, inspired and thirsty - we definitely earnt our beers. Trap didn’t climb the steps with me to the temples but he walked around the site with no difficulty - so yay us 😁. It really is quite remarkable what they were able to achieve without the benefits of the technology and tools we have today!

After a lovely dip in the pool, we discovered an amazing Italian restaurant about 300m up the road - great ambience, music and service, amazing food and delicious glasses of wine. LOVED it - if you’re ever in the area, you must check out the Monte Verde Trattoria in Palenque. 5 stars.

Then yesterday we headed off on an afternoon trip to the Cascadas Misol Ha and Cascadas Agua Azul - you can go behind Misol Ha waterfall and find a cave to explore and Agua Azul has about 12 waterfalls and pools at the bottom where you can swim - which I took advantage off.

Well that’s all for now. We’re off on the bus to Campeche tomorrow morning for our next stop - we’ve gone a bit more upmarket as we’ll be celebrating our wedding anniversary there 🥳.

Till next time, adios from J&T xx

PS: check out the murals at the hotel - you will see that Trump et al are very popular here.... 🤣