We toured the ruins at Palenque on Saturday morning. Thankfully it was nice and cool as the ruins require climbing steep steps as you climb the pyramids constructed by the ancient Mayans or walk the jungle trails exploring un-recovered mounds that hide mysteries from 2000 years ago. Glenn was impressed by the site and our guide Raul was very knowledgeable about the site and history of the Mayan people.
We left Palenque Saturday afternoon for the 2 hour drive to Villahermosa. We had been without Pablo for our trip to San Cristobal and Palenque. We struggled to get our questions asked and to understand the answers in Spanish, yet we found it quit fun to communicate. Now I was going to make the drive to the big city without a guide and try to find the Hebron House. I felt pretty confident given the many trips I had made, but I’d always been a passenger in a vehicle. We also were required to leave Chiapas and enter the state of Tobasco, which meant crossing two military checkpoints.
The Mexican government is very diligent in policing its border with Guatemala and frequently stops buses and trucks leaving Chiapas which borders Guatemala forcing folks to get out of vehicles while they are searched. Fortunately, this day we did not look like smugglers, but normal gringo tourists and we were waved through the two checkpoints without incident. Buoyed by that success, we drove on into Villahermosa, found Wal-Mart for some necessary supplies and then found the Hebron House. We were greeted by the house caretaker Ezras and promptly fell into bed for a siesta.
After our nap, Glenn treated Ezras and me to a meal at the new Applebee’s restaurant in the centro of Villahermosa. It was very expensive (by Mexican standards) and not at all busy, (maybe that’s why) but the food was good. We returned to the house and watch a little NFL playoff action, then went to bed.
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