I woke up at 6:30am and went out with the dogs on a walk. It was very cool, almost cold, and there was a lot of mist hanging over everything. I was down by the river and met a woman, Estela, who was there with family, they were on a camping trip and had tents set up. We were talking and she said we could join their boat if we wanted so I went off to arrange it. It was a great deal as we only had to add $250pesos to what they had paid, so it cost us less than $25 Us for both of us. While I did that, they were packing up their tents. We left at 8:30 am.
I always seem to wear the wrong thing for whatever I'm doing. I had decided that I would wear shorts and my crocs so that bugs wouldn't grab onto my pant legs or get in my socks as I walked through the jungle. Everyone else wore long pants and tennis shoes, and had jackets for the boat ride. It was cold going up the river in the mist, an unusual experience in the jungle.

It was a fantastic ride even so, with jungle towering 100' and more on both sides. The Usamacinta is wide and green and deep so, although it is moving swiftly, the surface is calm and smooth. I have been reading John Stephens account of visiting this area in the 1800's and he speaks of 20' to 30' crocodiles so I asked the boatman. He said there are still crocodiles in the river and they are up to 4 meters (12'). I asked him to look for some on the way back but he had his earphones on and his cd player in his lap and was in another world.

You enter the site at Yaxchilán through a building on one level, go around several corners in the dark and up some stairs, the information says that many of the buildings on this site are on multiple levels with back stairs and tunnels between them. You then come out into the Gran Plaza with buildings surrounding it and on one side a huge staircase going up to a temple on top of the hill. It's 133' up the stairs, and then the temple has a large roof comb and several stepped patios. Along the big staircase up the hill, there are side temples and houses. It's an impressive site, with some of the original plaster and murals still visible after approx 1500 years! This was the home of the Shield Jaguar dynasty which included at least one woman regent.
The temple on top of the hill was built by Shield Jaguar IV and definitely commands the whole city. The Gran Plaza was built along the river after raising the bank with rock and morter to a level above flood stage and to support these massive buildings. I did climb up to the top, there's a picture to prove it!


The boat trip back was even better as the fog had burned off and we could better see the jungle in both Guatemala and Mexico, the river forms the border between the 2 countries. When we got back to Corazol, we were tired but really happy with the trip. We exchanged information with our new friends and promised to call them when we next go through Cuernavaca, their home. Estela is a retired nurse who now works part time teaching at the University, her son Edgar is attending the technological university. We really liked them and felt it was a serendipitous moment that we got to meet them and share the boat ride.

There is another mayan site worth visiting right up the road from where we were, Bonampak. We considered going there and staying another night but we were tired and wouldn't have appreciated the ruins.

So, we headed back towards Palenque. It's really a gorgeous ride, I love the small cone mountains and the mayan pueblos, we stopped along the road once and became the instant focus of a herd of cows. I had to take their picture they were watching us so intently.

Once back to the main road (about 3 hours) we went to a nice hotel we had seen that is in a bend in the river with a beach and restaurant overlooking the big pool created. They agreed we could park there - boondocking - for $150 pesos (-$15US) in a lovely spot under a giant Ceiba tree. I thought it was a big steep until I looked at the room prices, a room for 2 started at around $120 US a night.

We've seen some wonderful birds in the last couple days. We both like looking for them but Mimi is the one who has the eye for it and also who can identify birds, she's really good. So, while at Yaxchilán we saw Keel Billed Toucans, Oropendulas, an Elegant Trogan and a Flame Colored Tanninger.