Trip to Chiapas: Thursday

This past weekend I went to the state of Chiapas and got to experience the difference in geography, climate, and lifestyle. On Thursday we made it to Palenque, a city in Chiapas that has amazing ruins. The drive was about 8 hours including a couple stops to eat. It was still very warm in Palenque because we weren't in the mountains yet but it was more humid than it was hot. The Palenque ruins are in the middle of a jungle. The geography and climate was very different because Chiapas is full of water and rivers unlike the Yucatan. Having that said, this was the reason why it was so much more humid than here in Merida. When we arrived at Palenque we got ready to go to the ruins, so I of course was preparing myself to sweat like crazy! Us students had the choice of staying with our personal tour guide that we brought from Merida or we could go off on our own and take pictures. I decided to stay with Luis our tour guide since I wanted to be able to see all the ruins and know the story behind each building. Luckily, another girl came with me so I wasn't alone with the visiting professor and his wife. I was so thankful that she came along.

In my opinion, God intervened and she came for another reason than just to come on the tour. Once we had been on the tour for about 30 minutes, we walked up some very wet, steep stairs to see a building that hasn't been completely exposed. This is so hard to talk about because it is always playing over and over in my head. So at the edge of this building once we had climbed up, Luis went to see if there were stairs but in a matter of seconds he was on the ground below. He put his right foot out to look over to see if there were any steps but the overhang was so wet that he slipt and his whole body went. I keep overplaying the incident in my head and I hear his gasp when he was falling and his huge eyes and gasping for air when he had landed. He landed on his back but more on his right side. I was so thankful that Tiffany came along because she has had first aid training or whatever you want to call it. The visiting professor and his wife and Tiffany were already down by him by the time I moved. I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed so I was standing looking down at him with my mouth wide open as he is gasping for air and screaming. I was freaked out but luckily Tiffany was able to calm him down, go through asking him questions and got him up slowly. We all walked him back 20 min to the entrance while trying not to fall again going down the steep, wet steps.

The other driver took him to the hospital and found out that he broke 3 ribs and cracked another. One way or another, he didn't puncture a lung which is amazing after falling about 15 feet to the ground below. So after walking back, Tiffany and I went back into the ruins, took pictures, saw the cascades that were on the way out of the site and found Val. We made it all the way through the huge ruins within 35min. and had to wait another 30min. until everyone else showed up. That night another driver and Luis' son came to Palenque so that we would have another driver because we took Luis' car and a 15 passenger van. Luis' son then took Luis back home to Merida where he has to wait and do nothing for 45 days which is killing him. His life is all about driving and giving tours and now he can't for a while. We missed him throughout the whole trip because Val and the other two drivers didn't know much about things we saw. Thursday night I had supper with the girls downtown in Palenque and then headed back to the hotel to relax and watch tv before falling asleep since I knew we had another 5 hour drive tomorrow through the mountains.

The following are pictures of some ruins and a cascade on the way out of the Palenque ruins.

We had to have a little fun after being stressed out but yet thankful that Luis was talking, walking, and breathing.