The Mayan ruins at Palenque are pretty spectacular - especially since you're driving in the middle of nowhere and suddenly there's a clearing at the end of a long driveway off of a double-lane road with ancient palaces and temples baking in the hot, jungle sun.

A couple of shacks will sell you trinkets, snacks and tchotchkes and peddlers will do their best to win your favor too. But once past the tourist gauntlet, you can explore the ruins with unabandoned glee.

The name Palenque means palisade in Spanish. And the ruins border the Lacandon jungle, one of Mexico's largest areas of tropical forest and the home to the mysterious and reclusive Lacandon Indians.

Surprisingly (at least when I was there) most of the ruins are pretty accessible. My most memorable moment: sweating like a pig climbing all sixty-nine steep, uneven stairs to the top of the Temple of Inscriptions and then shivering almost immediately after entering the nearly-pitch-black, cool, damp corridors of the ruin.

I also had fun hiking the short trail into the jungle to the Temple of the Lion. If you look closely you can see huge, colorful beetles near the path and a monkey or two in the trees.