Jungle fever

Hitting the road at 5:30am was a bit rude but well worth it for the drive through the mountains from San Cristobal de las Casas and down to the tropical lowlands of Chiapas. A thick mist surrounded the dense pine forests as we descended from the mountains, passing through villages dotted with simple timber huts and men heaving bundles of wood along the roadside.

Huge trucks and open-sided vans filled with people on their way to work screamed past us as our van negotiated tight hairpin bends. The obvious danger of the road was confirmed when we passed a smashed up semi-trailer - it had been carrying crates of eggs, which were smeared for hundreds of metres on either side of the road.

We stopped at Agua Azul - its foam-like water cascaded over smooth terracotta rocks into pools of turquoise blue water. Mexico has a lot of waterfalls, but we were pretty impressed by this one. Quite apart from the main falls, which crashed down on the rocks with a deafening roar, above it there were several other smaller falls with pristine falls just perfect for swimming. The water was crispy cold but deliciously refreshing.

Within a short space of time the landscape had changed from cool pine forests to dense rainforest. We stopped for the night at a jungle hideaway called El Panchan. Obscured from the road, it is a motley collection of thatched huts, campsites, restaurants and bars totally encircled by the rainforest.

We were all ready to whip out the tent and camp, but as we moved deeper into the jungle we noticed the air becoming thicker and more humid, and the prospect of rain drew nearer. With doubts about the water-proofness of our tent, we opted for a thatched cabin instead - which only cost a few dollars extra. It was lucky we chose cover. No sooner than we were safely undercover it started absolutely bucketing down.

For most people, El Panchan is simply a jumping off point to explore the Mayan ruins of Palenque. We were quite enamoured by it, and having no reason to push off quickly, hung around for a few days to soak up the vibe. There was quite a mix of people there, from the ubiquitous fire-twirling hippies and trance junkies there to celebrate the equinox, or culmination of the Maya Calendar and the full moon, to older couples and people with small children.

We were in danger of being ruined-out - having already visited two sites in the Yucatan and with plans to visit sites in Guatemala. But we were glad to have visited Palenque. Set deep in the jungle, many of the buildings are only partially excavated and still overgrown with huge trees and vines and covered in moss.

Palenque doesn't have a fuck-off pyramid like its more frequented cousin Chichen Itza, but it has plenty of other crumbling buildings and temples which you can clamber all over and explore. It seemed to be built in a slightly different style to the other sites that we had visited - mainly because it is a few hundred years older. Abandoned in 900AD, Palenque seemed to be constructed from clumsier building techniques using chunkier odd-sized stones.

Clambering through the dense jungle to check out the half-buried buildings was the most rewarding part of the day. We spotted a large black howler monkey - so-named because of the terrifying shriek they emit, sort of a cross between an asthmatic cough and a screeching bat. Hearing their roar makes you think of a large, scary monster, but your feels are quickly disspelled when you seen one crashing through the treetops.