Mexico 2012 RV Trip - Day 40 - February 4, 2012 Calderitas - Palenque

We left the state of Quintana Roo and passed back into Campeche. We were inspected by the Federales once again. They mainly wanted to check our papers and looked in the refrigerator and cupboards. Tobey thought maybe they inspected us because they are curious about out motorhome. Who knows?

We got up early, 6am, to a beautiful sky and sunrise over Chetumal Bay after two days of rain. We said our goodbyes to our wonderful hostess, Kathe, and were westward bound to Palenque armed with a great gift. She gave us a copy of the Guia Roji, a Mexico road atlas. It really came in handy! (wish we had had it sooner)

It was an interesting drive and we love the roads in Quintana Roo, nice and wide and smooth! The scenery changed and we passed through sugar cane fields on our way to the Kohunlich Ruins, about 42 miles west of Chetumal.  

Admission was $110 pesos for 2 (about $8.50 USD). The Kohunlich Ruins are some of the more recently discovered and are believed to have been built and occupied between 300-600AD.

The ruins are set in the jungle and it is thought to have one of the oldest ball courts in Quintana Roo. We thought the Temple of the Masks was the most interesting part of the ruins. The masks all look toward the sunset and represent the members of the ruling lineage of Kohunlich.

We wandered around the site for about an hour and didn’t see any other people until we were leaving! One thing we did notice was some of the pyramids had rounded layers near the top – something we hadn’t see much of.

We crossed back into cattle country and ranches. There were not many towns, but all of the small villages have lots of topes. We went through San Isidro, a very small village with about 10 streets. It had 18 topes along the main road – no wonder it takes all day to get anywhere!After we crossed into the state of Tabasco the roads turned considerably worse and did not improve in the state of Chiapas. There were loads of potholes and road construction. It slowed us down, but we managed to arrive at the Maya Bell RV Park about a mile from the Palenque Ruins and museum by 4pm. This is one of the busiest places we have been.

There are four other rigs parked here, as well as several tent campers that rent the palapas in the “upper” section of the park. They also have cabanas to rent and a restaurant, so it is quite a lively place. We are paying $150 pesos per night without electric hookups. (about $11.50USD)

To add to the ambiance, there are monkeys here!  There were six in the tree just across from us. We could also hear howler monkeys in the jungle behind the campground. They almost sounded like lions roaring in the distance – kind of eerie!

We traveled 323 miles today. Again, no internet – hopefully tomorrow our banda will be able to find a cell signal.

GPS 17.48780°N, 93.04820°W