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San Pedro, Guatemala, 4 April 2003
Tikal, Palenque, Merida, Uxmal and Loltun
Odv2004-09-15 12:15:50
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activity, with the exception of the other Maya structures.
March and April are the driest months, and this rainforest looked like it hadn't seen any rain in quite some time! In spite of that the forest was magnificent, we saw many colorful birds, and several howler monkeys hanging around in the trees. These are supposed to be the loudest monkeys on the planet.
To get from Flores to Palenque, we needed to cross the border river, while there is no road or bridge to use. The originally planned route, over El Naranjo was not available for some reason, so we took the alternative route over Bethel and from there a 30 min boat trip downriver to the Mexican side.
The Palenque ruins are much closer together then those in Tikal. What makes Palenque different is the fact that there is a tower with several floors. But the most striking thing is the tomb of Pacal II. It was discovered in the 1950s After the rubble filled staircase had been excavated by archaeologists.
The tour guides said that visiting the tomb was no longer possible, but that wasn't quite true. If you went to the museum, and applied for permit, including a written statement of why you wanted to see it, you could be issued a permit. We got a permit, and had to wait until 15:40 when we would be allowed a visit for a maximum of 20 minutes.
The tomb was covered by a 5 ton slab with a carving of the king surrounded by all kinds of things. Erich von Däniken, a Swiss author with a vivid imagination, who wrote the book "Gods from Outer Space", claims the carvings represent a space ship. I read this book when I was a child and used this knowledge to acquire the visiting permit, allowing me to verify this theory for myself. The fact is it could represent anything you want, and yes it is possible to see some kind of transportation device in it. A photo can be found at the bottom of this page.
We left Palenque
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See photographs from:
Mexico Gallery
,
Honduras Gallery
,
Guatemala Gallery
,
Belize Gallery
