Much to our surprise, it had been rather cold since we reached Mexico.

Palenque is a different story; this time we really entered the tropical forest, hot and humid and vibrant with tropical life.

We started with the famous Maya ruins of Palenque. It’s a beautiful site in the jungle, with monkeys jumping all around. More than the ruins themselves, I was fascinated by how Nature had reclaimed the space, with giant tree roots embracing the old stones.

We also visited two other Maya sites further down; Yaxchilan (pronounced “Jacques Chirac” with a Chinese accent!) and Bonampak (that we called Napoleon Bonampak to stay in the theme)

Yaxchilan is by far the best of the two, and can only be accessed by boat along the river that separates Mexico from Guatemala. (Pro-tip for french Free users: disable roaming there! Data is not included in Guatemala and I was charged 60€ just by approaching the border:/ )

Bonampak is a smaller site but it has preserved some nice painted murals.

I was surprised to learn that the peak period of Mayan cities was around 600 to 800 a.d., somewhere between our Clovis and Charlemagne. I think I imagined them much older. Apparently in those times, human sacrifice was still a popular thing. (Well, it still is in the US…)

Last but not least, we went jumping in the Roberto Barrios waterfalls, and it was pure awesomeness 😍