We had a decent night sleep in our hotel room and go down for breakfast around 7.00. It’s a simple breakfast buffet but there is enough choice to satisfy all members of the family. Almost an hour later and Cleo finishes her breakfast. The only other guests seem to be members of the National Police, federales. The parking lot is filled with more than 30 big Police pickup trucks and we are surrounded by men with assault rifles. We’re not sure if we should feel more or less secure. We leave the federales in the breakfast hall and go to visit the Museo parque La Venta.
It’s just a 4 min drive from our hotel but we park at the wrong side so we have to walk 10 minutes through the surrounding parc to get to the entrance. The first part of the museum parc is a sad looking zoo with native animals such as jaguars, howler monkeys, crocodiles and toucans. Finally a toucan, we just prefer the animals to be free. We didn’t come here for the animals, we did come here for the Olmec statues which are placed in a big botanical garden.
The statues were originally found at the Olmec site at La Venta but were moved here when oil was found at the site and the archeological remains were at risk. The Olmec were the oldest of the Mesoamerican civilizations and the statues predate everything we have seen this far. It’s a nice walk through the replicated jungle full with white-nosed coatis and more than 80 original Olmec statues.
When we walk back through the other park to our car, Tim spots a wild crocodile in the lake. He comes ashore and lies down for a rest. We return to the hotel for a last swimming session before we head to our fifth and final Mexican state. So far we have visited Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco and now we will head to Chiapas and the city of Palenque.
It’s a two-and-a-half hour drive, which the children spent asleep. When we approach Palenque we see our first mountains in Mexico and wild howler monkeys are swinging from the trees. We have a small cabin with a big green garden, another paradise. Olga and the children explore the pool while Tim tries to find the ruins from the sky, sadly the jungle blocks thesignal so we’ll have to discover them with our own eyes tomorrow. Olga cooks in the outside kitchen, luckily the musquito’s don’t like her. We spend the night in our jungle cabin
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