Before a day (or just a few hours, which is what we lasted!) of exploring ancient Mayan ruins, breakfast is a must. I recommend pork tacos. Three is far too many but will stave off lunch for a very long time. Any street taco stand in the town of Palenque will do.

Deeeelicious

When you have sufficient sustenance, you’re ready to face the crowds, crippling humidity and many stairs that involve a trip to Palenque archeological site.

We headed out there from the town as early as we could in a collectivo (mini van).

The Palenque ruins date back to around 226 BC to 799 AD and comprise of impressive temples atop hundreds of stone steps, a labyrinth style palace complex featuring a four-storey observation tower and incredibly intact inscriptions decorating some of the walls.

Temple of the Inscriptions

Temple of the Inscriptions (again)

Inside some of the temples are tombs of kings and noblewomen whose riches have long since been removed by archeologists and put in museums. But you can still go into the narrow passageways and pretend you’re in a movie.

The Observation Tower in the palace

Inside the palace

Under an A-shaped Corbel arch in the palace

The palace

We wandered away from the palace, underneath monkeys in trees, to find more temples.

Getting some cardio in

The temple of the count

The temple of the count

It felt like we saw everything quite comprehensively, but we were done after 2 hours?! So I’m not sure if that’s a reflection of our impatience or of the stinking hot weather. Probably both. Very cool ruins though.