Oh Misol-Ha ... lalalalalalalalalalala.....

2008, Central America 2008, Mexico 2008 No Responses »
Jan 142008

Well got up this morning bright and early, headed to the gym in town after a swim. The gym was a quaint old thing, with lots of weights, but all rusty and what not – a real man’s gym, without the acoutrements of the modern gym and all. It was nice and I hit the workout hard… after grabbing some empanadas in town, got back to the hotel for about 11am and then it was off to the waterfalls.

Just like Trinidad, everything here operates on Mexican time but the thing is that my time here is of the essence, so I was getting a little antsy about the whole thing. Eventually the bus came for us and we were off to the falls. Getting from Palenque to Misol-Ha was about 20km.. but it took about 15 mins with the crazy driving these guys do around the bends and everything and I must say that when I got to the falls, the drop and the power in the DRY season was astounding. It is a gorgeous sunny day, so of course it causes all sorts of problems with flaring on your camera…

 

 

Now once you hike the 15 mins to the falls, there is a huge area to swim within the pool, but of course, since I’m travelling alone here, there wont be any of that. I’m a little disappointed not to be swimming in the pool but hey what can you do?? The nice thing is that within Misol-Ha, there is a clear path behind the falls and there are some caves at the top of the falls area, where there are even more falls through some caves, but as I have clearly learnt in Mexico…. I am claustrophobic!!!

The hike behind the falls offers some stunning drops of the water in front of you, but I am thankful I invested in the Merill hydro sandals before I came, since the footing was treacherous and everyone was slipping in front me, one dumbass girl tried walking in platforms and sprained her ankle quite badly… note to anyone, falls climbing isn’t a fashionable activity and nature doesn’t like being mocked.

Once you traverse behind the falls, there is a steep climb to caves at the top, where there is another waterfalls within the caves, but the view of the falls from this side is amazing ;)

  

Once you’re behind the falls and going up the climb

   

You get to the caves and once ur inside you can take another little tour, but for me, this was enough caves for me this trip, so I chose to look from the inside out…

Then it was back down, past the view and to the bus to head over to Agua Azul :)

Posted by Rishi at 12:53 pm

Day something.. got into Palenque and heading to all sorts of falls....

2008, Central America 2008, Mexico 2008, Palenque No Responses »
Jan 112008

Well getting into Villahermosa from Mexico City was kind of a trek, especially when these little airports are out of thw ay. This was a painless trek though, and my luggage came on time, unlike the episode in mexico city. So once I got my lugagge, I then had the task of finding a taxi to Palenque from Villahermosa, not getting ripped off in the process. The hotel has quoted 1200 pesos for the transfer… to which i polited told them on the phone to F@@$ themselves. When I got to the taxi depot, I saw that the price to Palenque was 1000 Pesos.. i resolved not to pay more than 800 pesos, and even then I knew this was too much, but not speaking Spanish, in a Spanish speaking country leaves you with slightly less bargaining power – after walking outside, I indeed found a taxi, with the help of his calculator and me going yes/no to his typing on the calculator, we met me my price after walking away twice.

The ride to Palenque was non eventful, but this was a 170 km ride though… for 800 pesos… man.. in Toronto, I would have needed a second mortgage to afford that ride. Lots of great jungle to pass through but eventually I got the hotel here in Palenque : Maya Tulipanes . This is looks like a decent enough hotel with a pool, no gym but thankfully very very reliable FREE Wi-Fi service. Hell the internet at the Sheraton in Mexico City cost me about 25% of the room there. Speaking of that, lemme go check how many SPG points they deducted for that 5 night stay there. Ok, so no real extra points gathered and no stays credited :( Anyway so the program for the next three days is as follows

DAY 1
13:00 HRS.
 Arrival to the hotel (registration and lodging)
Welcoming cocktail
19:00 – 22:00 hrs
 Dinner ( 1st night )
DAY 2
08:00 – 10:00 HRS
 Breakfast at the hotel.
12:00 – 18:00 HRS
 Tours: Misol-ha, and Agua Azul waterfalls.
Free evening (2nd. night)
DAY 3
06:00 – 19:30 HRS
 Tours: Yaxchilan, and Bonampak Archaeological sites. Includes a 1:45 hrs boat-riding through the Usumacinta river, 01 lunch.
FREE EVENING (3rd. Night)
DAY 4
07:00 – 08:00 HRS
 Breakfast at the hotel.
08:00 – 11:30 HRS
 Transfer to the Archaeological site of Palenque.
13:00 HRS
 Check out. End of the package

So after getting here to the hotel now at about 6pm or so… dinner was passable. The food definitely isn’t 5 star but the mexican stuff is pretty decent. So now off the to the pool for a swim and then some sleep, it’s been a long day getting here to the jungle, but the air is clean, the weather is warm and I’m ready for some waterfalls…..

Posted by Rishi at 12:14 pm
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