Life abroad: As Robert sees it

We arrived in Palenque about 10:30 at night and went strait to our hotel. It was like we found a lost hippy commune of the 60s.

The hotel is right outside the entrance to the park and about 3.5km from town. The whole complex is made up of little cottages set in the jungle; ours was a six minute walk to the main restaurant. Apparently, the place is run by a bunch of hippies who perform fire dancing, music and make jewelry to sustain themselves. At night there are two stages, both with great bands that play as long as the crowd keeps buying beer. They also cook some great food and the best pizza I’ve had yet on the trip. I guess if you are out in the middle of nowhere and you get the munchies, you would want to cook the best food possible. It was a great value for only $20 per night and we split that three ways.

The next morning we were walking on the main road to the ruins with a group of other people ahead of us. Watching them, they all crossed the street and walked into the bushes. Thinking it was a shortcut and always excited to run through the jungle, I tried looking where they went in as we passed by. The only thing I could see was a big bush. Disappointed, we turned to keep going when a guy popped out of a bush and offered us mushrooms. Not really wanting any because I had some on my pizza last night, I turned him down. But we did see those other four people at the ruins later and they seemed very happy. They must have been vegetarians eager to have fresh organic mushrooms.

The ruins were okay. Rasa and I feel we are a little jaded when it comes to seeing ruins now. It’s a shame because Mayan architecture is so amazing when you think of seeing such a great culture right on our own continent. We got some pictures but felt it was, as usual, packed with bus loads of tourists. The other eyesore was the stands of very bad handicrafts covering any available open space and not a single person selling water. It’s hard to believe a culture once capable of building pyramids can’t even carve a piece of wood now. The best thing about Palenque though, is the trail through the ruins and down past the waterfalls. This was actually very enjoyable once we got away from the throngs of people. We had the park to ourselves and were able to stroll at our leisure.

The highlight of Palenque has to be the Agua Azul waterfalls. The water is very high in minerals so it gives the river a chalky, blue color and creates these basins to catch the water. It’s the same process that takes place inside a cave but only on a much larger scale in the river. We booked our transport to the river for $10 per person and got there about 2pm. It was the perfect time for pictures as we hiked up stream, finding our own little swimming hole. The rest of the time we picnicked and played with the local kids until 5pm. Something we only noticed because we needed an empty plastic bottle to collect my sand was there is no trash here. Then thinking about it, we have seen very little trash the whole time in Mexico. It’s a beautiful country!

Tomorrow we leave for Flores, Guatemala. We will stop by two more ruins and travel on the river for part of the way. More when we are back on line.

Our jungle hut hotel at El Panchan (17° 29′ 18.5″N, 92° 1′ 28.2 “W)

Agua Azul waterfalls about 50km from Palenque (17° 15′ 9.5″N, 92° 6′ 55.8″W)

Note the sign: DANGEROUS NOT TO SWIM

So Kevin decided to be safe and go swimming

Rasa made some friends that tempted her in

The main temple in the Palenque Ruins

The main acropolis of the ruins

Robert J Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
www.PureWaterForTheWorld.blogspot.com
www.RobJKentJr.blogspot.com
Cell: +504 9871-5318
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119

Installing 70 filters in our first community, we were exhausted by the end of the 4th day. We had only the most far flung, uphill homes remaining and we were ready to call it quits when we met Digna. Rob, Jeff and I hiked up to one of these mountain-top houses to scope out the trail. Arriving at the house we were all ready to put it off until the next day, when we could make a proper sling to carry the filters. As I was speaking to Maria, a 39-year old mother of 11 children, I noticed the huge eyes of her youngest daughter. I commented about how frail she looked and the mom immediately began to tell me that Digna has had diarrhea for the past 8 days. She was so weak, she couldn’t even stand on her own and her skin had no elasticity because of dehydration.

I began telling the mother she should use SODIS (Solar Disinfection) until she can get a filter. SODIS is when you keep a plastic bottle of water kept in the sun for 24 hours to kill all the bacteria. Ironically enough, with all the plastic trash in this country this family was too poor to even buy a bottle of coke so there were no bottles to be found. I rushed over to Rob and Jeff, my ears filled with the sounds of Digna howling, and told them, “We have to install this filter today!”. Before I turned around to talk more with Maria the boys were already off looking for sticks to make a stretcher. By the time I fetched Enelida and our buckets, the boys had already rounded up an army of help and had the filter harnessed to a stretcher.

The trail was not really a trail at all but a stream channel with a lot of big rocks. The best thing about this whole situation though was to see all the people who pitched in to help bring this filter to the family in need, which could not afford to wait another week. We arrived at the top of the hill at their house to see Maria beaming at us and her new filter. Enelida and I started installing the filter right away with our little army of helpers watching everything. I almost felt like we were in an operating room “water, we need more water”, “bucket, dump this bucket”. We finished up and said we would return in three weeks with the water jugs and to check up on how Digna was doing.

20 Days Later

Upon returning to El Recreo, I was very pleased to see Digna wobbling on her own when I entered their house. This community is very fortunate, they have transportation that passes by about twice a day. It is a small truck that makes the hour trip to the main road and from there to the health clinic. Luckily, Digna’s mother was able to make the trip and get the medication she needed to save Digna’s life. She had parasites, amoebas, and a urinary tract infection, most likely all caused by poor sanitation and dirty water.

The filters are not a cure but a preventative solution. Now that Digna’s system has been cleared of parasites and infection, the filter along with the health education her mother received will reduce and potentially eliminate instances of gastro-intestinal illnesses. That means children like Digna will have the strength and can get the needed nutrients to develop properly instead of losing them to parasites. In the long run, this will lead to an increased attendance at school because they are not home sick, they can pay attention and not be suffering discomfort, and hopefully from their improved education they will have better opportunities in life.

Digna Dunia Marisol Martes, 17 months old on February 7, 2007

Our army of kids helping to carry whatever they could grab

The valiant group of porters passing through a stream trying not to trip

Over the hills and through the woods, while carrying 150 pound filter

Success, we made it up the hill!

Rasa Siminkas Kent- rsiminkas@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
www.RobRasa.com/Hisblog
Cell: +504 9871-5396
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119