Day Two - Palenque

Sanjai and I were underdressed at the "Museo de la Vente" in Villahermosa. At least, this is what I gathered from the "this way to the bathroom" signs, which depicted a man wearing a suit and tie and a woman in some kind of fancy gown. By contrast, my outfit featured "backpacking pants" that kept falling toward my knees--the elastic snapped last summer and I forgot to fix it.

Also, the "Museo" was not a museum but a weird hybrid between a zoo and a sculpture garden. Large stone heads relocated (a.ka. looted?) from ancient Olmec sites were embedded in the jungle alongside cages full of birds, jaguars and spider monkeys--as well as "small felines" that looked like household cats with designer fur. The layout of the so-called museum was cryptic enough that the Lonely Planet recommended hiring a guide for 150 pesos. No guides presented themselves, so we made do with occasional "you are here" maps.

I used to think fried bananas were a Cuban food, but I've reevaluated. Other cuisine moments from the day: complimentary tequila sunrises when we checked into our hotel, and a street stand selling quesadillas where we camped out and kept ordering more to eat until the end of a tropical downpour. The damage came to 36 pesos for six quesadillas, each with a different unidentified meat in it. If I had to guess, I think one was chorizo and another chicken. Afterward, to balance the meat, we bought dried fruits--Turkish-quality dates, apricots that were a little too sweet, and very dense, very tasty pears. Sanjai wanted mangos but the only ones they had were coated in chili powder.

Though he wasn't keen on these admittedly very red mangos, overall Sanjai has been both cheerful about eating random things and not particularly paranoid about the water. This is good, as it's very hard to avoid the occasional water exposure, unless you boycott showering. (He eventually succumbed to the ice in a margarita at dinner.)

Speaking of water, I've been very happy with my toothbrush. It has built-in toothpaste.

Lonely Planet described the town of Palenque as dull. I didn't find it so at all. It has the best-stocked shoe stores I've ever seen. Their walls are so crowded with footwear that I'm surprised they don't staple some to the ceiling. There was also a city plaza with two clowns and no grass, and a church housing a nativity scene that included a giant rooster (larger than all the humans except Mary.)

What I'm reading: "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides, which is brilliant, and the same chapter of the Lonely Planet guide over and over again, which is helpful but not as funny as Let's Go.

Tomorrow: we visit the Palenque ruins in the morning, then bus to Ocosingo in the afternoon. The next morning, we plan to charter a plane to a body of water called Laguna Miramar, which is somewhere southeast of here and supposedly very beautiful. There's a tiny bit of info on it here.