Spectacular Cenote

From Campeche we spent a day visiting these incredible underground ¨cenote¨, natural sinkholes filled with freshwater one theory suggests were created a few million years back when the great asteroid that struck earth and killed all the dinosaurs (which apparently hit in or near Mexico?). These sinkholes are found all through the region and are just amazing... cool, clear, and the bluest of water. They´re very deep, too! Ancient Mayans believed them to be sacred (not surprisingly, given how dry the land is here) and excavations have found gold and other precious things from that era that had been thrown in, presumably as offerings to the gods.

Inside the first cenote, a cave accessed from a hole beneath a tree... Felt a little bit like Alice falling down a rabbit hole!

Abdul climbing back up after a dip in the water underneath

The second cenote, so clear, clean and blue... Little fish swimming around us - the kind they use in fish therapy! Perfect to swim in on a hot 40 degree day.

The last cenote we visted, 29 metres deep

Abdul helping our driver get the cart back on the track... There´s only one track so when another cart comes in the other direction, you have to pull the cart off the tracks!

Surreal Campeche

Campeche, a town on the coast, was recognised as a Unesco World Heritage site some years back, and has been immaculately preserved. So much so that the entire place feels kind of like a movie set. Houses and buildings are painted in bright colours, and the centre is walled in, built in the 1600s (I think!) to protect itself from (mostly pirate) attacks...

Unfortunately for us, most of the wall was under restoration when we visited!

The town's plaza

 

A peek inside a home we passed... And some questionable dresses in a shop!

 Beware, pirates!

Houses protected by the wall

Agua Azul

On our last day in Palenque we visited the gorgeous blue cascades of Agua Azul...

Our transport to cross the cascades

Delicious mango flowers! 

Palenque Ruins

After chilly San Cristobal de las Casas we headed to very hot Palenque, the site of a massive ruin, which was another powerful city back in its day. Very different to the dry ruins we´d seen in Teotihuacan and Monte Alban, these ruins are set in the middle of a jungle, and in fact we had the opportunity to see some ruins that were still in the jungle, covered by hundreds of years of soil, trees and plants. Anyone who has about $40,000 to spare could potentially pay for the excavation of one buried pyramid.

Palenque was abandoned around the same time (900AD I think) as pretty much all of these cities in the region, and nobody really knows why, though the theory of environmental degradation seems to have the biggest number of supporters, and given the thousands upon thousands of trees they would have had to cut down to make the stucco sculptures lining all of the walls, it makes the most sense to us! 

This particular ruin was so sophisticated. It had an aqeuduct system (still partially functioning today), toilets in the main palace, and there were even still beds in rooms left in the palace.

 Temple of inscriptions

 The palace

Observation tower in the palace

Ruins of pyramids in the jungle 

Rooms inside the palace

 Remains of a painting that would once have covered the entire wall

 Remains of stucco sculptures, on the right is Pakal, one mighty ruler (who happened to have one leg shorter than the other... likely a result of incest)

Temple of the sun

Mercado

There's something really interesting in exploring local markets. Perhaps as with a country's language, I think you can learn a lot about a culture through food, and the perfect place to start is at the market. Along with the regular carrots and cabbages there are the weird and wonderful. And the extension of the market - the street-side stalls, selling fruits, sweets, snacks, toys. Among the weird and wonderful in Mexico.... Grasshoppers, hundreds of types of chillies of all colours, divine stringy cheese, piles of pumpkin flowers, flower stalls selling flower teddy bears, dogs and "minions", cactus as a vegetable (a bit like okra when cooked), and the sweetest, most delicious mangoes in all the world. 

Preserved fruits and vegetables

Delicious Oaxaca stringy mozzarella cheese - rolled up in balls down the bottom of the picture

De-thorning cactus

Minion!!

Chillies and piles of grasshoppers