Misol-ha y Agua Azul

On our first full day in Palenque we took a trip to visit some of the waterfall sites outside of the city. We split up into two vans and headed out at 9 am. The road we took was the same road that we had to take to come in on the bus and it was just as windy and scary in a small van as in a huge bus. First we went to a waterfall called Misol-ha. It was only about a five-minute walk from the vans to the waterfall. It was a really beautiful waterfall with a trail behind. First I walked around behind the waterfall and up to a little cave on the other side. For 10 pesos each, a guide gave us flashlights and led us into the little cave to see the waterfall inside. It was really dark and hard to see where I was going. But we didn’t have to go very far to see the waterfall. There were lots of bats too. After getting out of the cave I walked back down to the pool below the waterfall and went swimming with some of the others. I tried to swim across to the waterfall but the current of the water and the spray of the waterfall made it really difficult. My arms got really tired after only a few minutes of swimming in place. We only stayed at Misol-ha for about an hour before getting back into the vans and heading to another waterfall location called Agua Azul. We had to endure another torturous journey on the windy road to get there. Agua Azul is more or less a series of smallish waterfalls along a river. You can hike for a while along the side of the river to see the different levels of the waterfall. It was a really touristy location with souvenir vendors occupying every inch of space along the rock-paved trail. I saw a lot of other gringos along the way, enjoying the local tourist locations just like us. There weren’t very many pools for swimming in, but we found one area where we could swim and float around in the current. I walked up the river a little way with Andrew and Dario to find a place to jump in and catch the current. It was really fun. The current was so strong that I was swept down into the lower pool where the others were sitting in the water. After a few more rounds of riding the current, we walked down the trail again to the van. Some of us decided to stop at the restaurant for food, which turned out to be horrible food. Oh well. After eating we got back into the vans and headed back to the hotel in Palenque. Another hour on the terrible roads. We got back around 5 pm, and then Ellie, Andrew and I decided to walk up the street to find the centro. Ellie was on a quest to find “elote,” so we went to see if we could find a street vendor Elote is a common street food that consists of corn on the cob smothered with lime flavored mayonnaise and then sprinkled with powdered cheese and chili powder. Downtown Palenque wasn’t anything too spectacular, but we managed to find elote for Ellie. We saw a few of the same tourist that we had seen at Agua Azul in the centro. After walking back to the hotel I changed back into my swimming suit and jumped into the pool. It felt so amazing after walking around in the evening humidity. Long exhausting day, but it was lots of fun.