Hey everyone, It has been a long road on the way to Palenque. We left on thursday around four. Our race started as we were dropped off with the other teams in the town center of Matamoros, Mexico. We all had to race to find our transportation down to Palenque. Our team ran over to try and get a taxi but were cut off by team 61, who thought ahead and called. They ended up taking off and we were lefting waiting. We finally got a taxi to pull over but at the same time a lady, named Fabe pulled over and offered us a ride. We scrunched our whole team of 6 and all our luggage in her Suv it was pretty crammed.
WE arrived at the bus station just as the other team 61 was arriving. Team Hupomone ended up walking there and followed closely behind. It was pretty close and we all ended up on the same bus anyway, but it was still fun.
We got to meet quite a few different people at the bus station. Before I left my aunt Melanie gave me a whole big bag of toys to hand out to the children, so I gave a couple of kids some toys.
We spent the next 30 hours on the bus pretty much non-stop to Palenque, the Mexican country side was absolutly breathtaking. It was filled with mountains and gorgeous trees. We had a good time of getting to know our teammates a little better, since most of us had only known each other for a week or so.
We ended up all arriving at 10 oclock friday night, with 2 other teams, hupomone and 61 so we all got a hotel together with them and we would finish the race to the top of the temple in the morning.
We woke up at 6 or so and our team decided that we would try and walk to the ruins, we knew it didn´t open until 8 so we thought we would have enough time to get there and beat the other teams. We had a great walk and some time of prayer as the slight fog covered the amazing mountain side. It was getting pretty close to 7:30 when team 61 drove by us screaming in a taxi.
We didn´t want to push it so we grabbed the next cab that came by and took off to the ruins. We arrived and were actually behind hupomone and 61. However we had to get tickets to get in and so we ran over to the ticket line first and were quite a few places ahead of both teams. Team Y.E.T.I or Odyssey whichever they are going by now, arrived just before 8 also.
When they opened up we were the first to get our tickets and took off sprinting through the ruins to go and find the highest temple, take a picture and claim the victory. We had a fairly good lead going in but we were unsure as to what temple to climb. We ended up trying to climb this really tall one towards the front, but soon realized that we couldn´t go any higher due to it being roped off. So we ran back down and by this time the other teams were catching up- We booked it over to the right temple and sprinted up the super steep stairs. We were out of breath, but we made it. And so Unofficially we got there first.
The ruins were so amazing. IT is crazy to think of how many years ago they were built. The civilizations of that time continue to blow me away, with how far advanced it seemed as if they were. It is also amazing how much they did in their ritualistic religion practices. To take the time to build these huge temples. There was also some amazing waterfalls off the path. It felt so good to be in such a gorgeous place. We prayed on the top of the Temple de la Cruz or Temple of the Cross. We had a little worship service and thanked God for the victory over the darkness. It was amazing to be in such a beautiful spot and to know that at one time it was involved in ritualistic pagan worship.
