Palenque

Palenque was a 9-hour bus ride from Mérida.  We stayed in a "hotel" that consisted of cabins in the jungle, actually quite nice.  I have wanted to visit this site since I first saw it in a movie our Spanish teacher showed us in 9th grade.  We used to bug subsequent Spanish teachers until they would let us see the movie again.  It's an Academy-Award winning 1971 documentary called "Sentinels of Silence."  Orson Welles narrates the English version and Ricardo Montalbán narrates the Spanish.  The short film featured helicopter photography of the sites accompanied by an epic, orchestral soundtrack.  It was a dream come true to see this beautiful city nestled deep in the jungle.



This first temple was later discovered to have been a tomb (see the opening at the bottom). No one had previously believed any of the Latin American pyramids had been used as tombs like the ones in Egypt.

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