Palenque & Christmas Eve

After a 9-hour bus ride, we entered the foothills of the Chiapas mountains. And the jungle of Palenque. We were late arriving because our guide had difficulty getting bus tickets. Everyone was on the move! Mexicans are big travellers and make up by far the largest numbers of tourists. So we arrived after dark and were thrilled by our lovely room with a mural painted on the wall, lots of windows and a ceiling fan, not to mention a very clean bathroom and no smell.

Our hotel was a complex of two- or four-room buildings along pathways through the jungle. You had to be careful not to step off the path because there were leaf cutter ants busily carrying their leaves somewhere important alongside. Luckily I had my headlamp (although there were cute little lights in the ground along the path) and we mapped our way back to the main part of the hotel - an outdoor cafe/bar with partial walls along the bar and stage, lovely lighting and more painted murals of green leaves, vines and animals. The large seating area was arranged on a concrete base, covered by a vaulted thatched roof on posts.

The place was packed - Christmas Eve is the time for fun in Mexico. I stayed up late watching live music, guests salsa dancing and stunning fire dances with drummers from South America. I really wished I could have got up and danced but salsa isn't in my repertoire yet.