Ah, Palenque. Now we're in Chiapas proper, southernmost state of Mexico. We're up in the mountains (about 2000 m), and it's rain forest all around. In the morning and evenings, (and all night long, for that matter), you can hear the howler monkeys, well, howling. Surrounding these ruins (the ones you can see here) are dozens more, buried and crumbling in the rain forest, with tiny overgrown footpaths connecting them all. Few tourists (of which there are perhaps 400 during the day) venture off the grassy plaza. Also surrounding the hills and farms are thousands upon thousands of hallucinogenic mushrooms, which have become a very lucrative crop for the local farmers. The campgrounds, where you sleep at night, gently swaying in your hammock under a palapa, are alive with, shall we say, somewhat left-thinking individuals who stay for days, weeks - even months. I personally only had four days to spend here... The moon was full one night, I spent several hours among the ruins - a remarkable little stop.