I didn’t beat the rain today even though I was on the road at 7am and only stopped for 20 minutes. The worst part is having the sweat run into my eyes and almost blinding me. It’s still coming down now.

The shoulder on the PanAm is amazing. It’s usually at least 4 feet wide and there are no potholes. There’s a bit of glass to watch out for but nothing too bad. I’m glad it was pretty flat today because my knee is a bit sore from yesterday.

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The entry fee to get into the ruins was a bit steep. It was something like $140 pesos which is way more than any other site I’ve visited. It was deathly hot and the tourists, most of which were foreigners, shuffled from one shady spot to the next. I did meet 3 American teachers and we chatted for a bit. They said I should come back for fireworks tonight but I’ll skip that–it was hard enough getting there the first time.

There were lots of cool non-building things to see here. In most of the cave-like rooms accessible to the outside, dozens of tiny birds would fly around like crazy whenever someone walked in. I just stood there kind of like Batman while they flew around my head. Also saw lots of iguanas wandering around. Up in the rafters in one building were 3 birds with the neatest tail feathers (pic below).

Sleep was next to impossible last night so I’m going to be really tired come tomorrow. It’s just way too hot and the ceiling fan is worthless. The wind also died down so there’s not even a breeze.

There were a large number of tourists but the site is fairly large so it didn’t feel crowded. I lucked out and had perfect weather and no mosquitoes, which I’ve heard can be pretty bad.

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Not sure if what I’m in yet is rain forest but it seems like it to me. On one of my many siestas I got to see lots of colorful little birds flying around. Not too many pictures today. I had to save my energy. Ran into 4 more “vine-across-the-road” stops staffed by one or more young girls. The first 2 were within 200 yards of each other and I was going downhill (fast) and didn’t feel like stopping. So I kept pedaling and they dropped the vine when they saw I wasn’t going to stop. It wasn’t long after that that I started feeling like a world-class jerk. They lowered the vine so its not like they were going to kill me for not donating a little and we’re not talking about a lot of money. I’m not a fan of their methods but if I were in their shoes I’d probably do the same. So at the next one I stopped and gave up a few pesos. The last one I rode right by because they didn’t hear me coming until it was too late. I turned around and gave them some pesos too.

Palenque is my home for the next 2 nights. Found a place with internet and hot showers (not that I needed it) for US $16 night (Hotel Shalom). Tomorrow I’ll go check out the ruins. I only saw a little of the town so far but it seems a bit rough. The buildings/sidewalks are in general disrepair and the streets are a it of a mess. Kind of surprising for being so close to one of the biggest archeological sites in Mexico.

Feeling a little better. My nose has finally stopped running and the cough isn’t nearly as bad.

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