My Mexico Travel Diary: Days Three & Four – Palenque

My Mexico travel diary, following my adventures in Mexico. Here’s what I got up to my third and fourth days in Mexico, visiting and exploring Palenque!

Days three and four of my Mexican BLT tour were spent in Palenque, which was one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting!

However, to get from Campeche to Palenque, we had to go on a long drive – seven hours, to be exact! So we stocked up on snacks, dedicated Matt to the role of DJ and we’re on our way. The drive was long, to say the least. But in between napping and reading, it was nice to just gaze out the window and watch the ever-changing landscape around us.

When we finally arrived, I was amazed at how awesome our hotel was! I’m not sure what happened exactly – I think we were originally going to stay in cabins in the jungle but it then got fully booked up – but instead, we ended up staying in a super luxury resort in the jungle. 

For a long time, it seemed like we were the only ones there! With two pools, hammocks outside our rooms and a spa to enjoy, we spent day three relaxing after the long drive. The pool was absolutely amazing – the water wasn’t cold, nor was it warm – it was just right. 

Discovering Don Mucho’s – A Hidden Gem in the Middle of the Jungle

That evening, Delai took us to a stunning place for food called Don Mucho’s, which was a restaurant in the middle of the jungle. There was also other places and restaurants nearby, all connected by wooden walkways through the jungle, over bridges and such – of course I absolutely loved this! We were seated upstairs with a view overlooking the stage, where a band played Latin music and people danced traditionally.

This was a really lovely and laid back evening spent drinking tequila, eating good food and playing a few hilarious drinking games. After dinner, we watched a fire show, then headed downstairs to dance to the music. The band played traditional Mexican music, as well as covers of a few English songs…and we even ended up in a Mexican dance off! I really felt like a local this evening and loved this hidden gem so much. I hope one day I can return.

Visiting the Ruins of Palenque

The following day was one I’d been looking forward to the most – visiting the ruins of Palenque and going on a jungle tour. These activities really exceeded my expectations – the ruins of Palenque were absolutely stunning and like nothing I had ever seen before. My photos don’t do them justice but it truly was an amazing site to climb up some of the ruins and gaze across at the archaeological site with the backdrop of the jungle.

Isn’t it all just so stunning? The views are something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life, especially when reading back over my Mexico travel diary.

Welcome to the Jungle…

However, that afternoon, I had a bit of a bad time! We had the choice between going to two waterfalls and of course, we chose the more dangerous one, expecting it to be high so that we could jump off it. We were wrong. 

When we arrived, it was overcrowded. We also couldn’t take our actual stuff down to the natural waterfall, as we’d be starting at one end and ending at the other. So we parked the van as close as we could and had to walk down just in our swimwear with nothing on our feet. I don’t think we quite anticipated what we would find at the end!

Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

The first part of the waterfall basically required us to walk down slippery rocks through the gushing water, with just a small bit of rope to hold onto. It was so scary. I think if we had the right equipment and had known what we were really in for we might have been okay but I just found it disastrous from start to finish. We had no shoes on, so kept slipping constantly on the ridiculously wet floor. We had to hold on a lot and could have very easily have slipped down completely and just…fell/slipped down the rest of the waterfall. Two or three times I almost hit my head on the rocks too.

Although it sounds like I’m exaggerating, it’s something I would love to do under proper circumstances one day. But I didn’t enjoy any of it as I didn’t feel safe at all. Then it came to the area where we were supposed to jump off. I took one look at it and knew it wasn’t possible.

There was just a small ledge to jump from, with thick branches jutting out beneath. It wasn’t a straight down jump and would require us to jump forward OVER the thick branches. The ground was slippery from the rain the night before, so a running start wasn’t possible either.

Some of the group did it and I’ll be honest, I felt like a complete tit for backing out. Normally I’m the first person to say ‘fuck it’ and try something – but even I knew my limits. Myself and another girl made our way through the jungle to the bottom instead. Although the view was pretty when I did have a little swim, I just didn’t have it in me to enjoy it.

Evening Plans

Still, I had a kick-ass gnarly bruise from rope burn. I enjoyed showing this off for the rest of the holiday.

That night, whilst the others went for a nocturnal jungle tour at a nearby zoo, Tommy, Matt, Dom and I had a nice dinner in the restaurant. I had the most amazing meal of melted cheese and chorizo in a pot with little wraps filled with tomato, onion etc and it was so good. I still haven’t stopped thinking about it. We also had a hilarious incident dubbed ‘lemongate’ (the staff simply did not know what a lemon was) and I giggled when the waiter insisted on bringing over a coat rack for my tiny bag and lightweight shawl.

And that’s a wrap on days three and four of my Mexican adventure!

More Posts about My Mexico Travel Diary

Previous Day: Day Two – Ruins of Uxmal and Campeche
Next Day: Day Five – Bacalar