On Monday, we took the bus from San Cristobal de las Casas descending into the lowlands to Palenque. As we decsended, the vegetation changed from mostly pine and fir forests to a more tropical vegetation. We passed through the heart of zapatista country. The pueblas we pas
sed through were very poor with one-room homes made of thin wood walls (not sure how that does in the cold winter nights) but pretty little gardens with chickens, cows, and furr
y pigs. Although the distance was only 200 kilometers, it took over 5 hours because the road was windy and there were topes (speed bumps) through every town and in front of every house we passed!
sed through were very poor with one-room homes made of thin wood walls (not sure how that does in the cold winter nights) but pretty little gardens with chickens, cows, and furr
y pigs. Although the distance was only 200 kilometers, it took over 5 hours because the road was windy and there were topes (speed bumps) through every town and in front of every house we passed!
Today we went to the Mayan ruins of Palenque, which are located in a very beautiful jungle hillside setting. Many of them are still overgrown and under excavation. There were interesting carvings of glyphs and figures of past rulers on the building edifices. I am suprised that parts of it are so preserved, due to to the humidity and amount of water (rain, rivers, etc.) running through the place. 
4 comments:
The close-up of the carvings is so interesting I made a print. How large is each of the squares? Are they blocks set into the wall?
Joanne
That jungle setting of the ruins is so beautiful! Can you do a link with info about the hieroglyphics?
Ma Youcha
Hi Joanne! The blocks are about 4" x 4" and are used to give the history of sites (how rulers came to power, battles won, etc.). They are usually carves out onto a big slab of limestone. We've seen some slabs as big as 25 ft x 10 ft with both the 4x4 carvings surrounding a larger image of the king or deities. Pretty cool stuff!
Hi Emily & Luke, wow, I also like these mystic ruins. Since I read books about them when I was young I always wanted to visit these meso-American sites in Mexico and Gutemala and Belize etc one day. Maybe its a good opportunity to do it from here within the next 3 years.
Guido
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