Out of San Cristobal I take a small side road to Palenque, which on the one hand is famous for its spectacular nature and on the other hand is considered extremely dangerous. I am constantly accompanied by about 10 policemen. At night, 2 policemen with machine guns stand in front of the hotel and even when I go swimming to the waterfall, I am guarded by 3-4 policemen.
Directly after San Cristobal, the route leads through beautiful coniferous forests up to 2000 metres to Ocosingo and then back down through the jungle.
In a village on the way, they wait for me to offer them local specialities. First homemade sugar cane schnapps and then podzole, the national drink made from maize in Chiapas. They also eat rats here. A local speciality is a rat stew, which is supposed to give a lot of strength, but luckily it is not ready yet. Hundreds are waiting on the central square in Ocosingo and I escape the hustle and bustle by having the police take me in a pickup truck and drive me zigzag through town to the hotel, so that no one knows where I am.
We continue through the hot and humid jungle with daily heavy rain showers.
When we arrive in Palenque, I have been running for 96 days and have completed my 100th marathon.
From now on, the route remains completely flat and leads dead straight to Cancun. The thermometer rises to 35 degrees, the humidity is very high and there is no shade. This combination is extremely tough.
