in the jungle the mighty jungle, the MAYANS sleep tonight

So new years was fun, lots of fireworks, sparkelers, good food, good bands, etc. Got home really late.. blahblah.. the usual celebration. On the first, I sent myself, in San Francisco, a big fat orange juicer to make our own delicious juice at home!!!! Then on the second (yesterday) we arrived in Palenque, where we have a pretty run down room rented but it works.
Today we went to the ruins about a half hour walk from where we are staying (although we hitchhiked up the road). These are the best ruins we have ever seen. With only 3% excavated of the entire site, there are still over 20 pirimades or structures. It is huge, surronded by thousands of hectaacres of jungle. Sonya and I decided that we were just gonna explore this trail that went into the jungle, right after this tomb on the trail. We ran into very few people on the trail, but a couple of texans joined us, and right after I was explaining the deadly conbras that you need to watch out for, we saw one, a HUGE one.
It was at least 8 feet long and as thick as my leg, and Im sure very venimoso. After that we were terrified, even though we claimed we WANTED to see the snake, keeping our eyes peeled in every direction. (apparently they are very agressive and will attack without provocation.) Then only a couple of minutes later we saw a ton of Howler Monkeys in the trees, whcich we could here, far off, our entire hike. Keeping in mind the snake, we took turns looking up at the monkeysd, while the other person kept the walking sticks, guarding from poisonous snakes. The monkeys can be heard from miles away and liteally sound like a jungle cat, mostly like a LION though. On monday we will probably head for Guatemala, in route for Belize. The only other ruins that equal Palenque great vastness are TIKAL, near the lake of Peten Itza. And then we are to meet mom in BELIZE!!!!!! so excited for the future, and apparently, the present holds a bit of excitement, too. At least life threatening excitement, hehe.