I have a confession to make.

In a past blog, I lead you to believe that Lakamha belonged to the people Mexico as well as to the people of the world, but I neglected to tell you about Palenque's biggest landlord/lady of them all -- that of the jungle. She thinks that the site should be hers and that it should be turned back into the organic matter from which it came. Witness this amazing algae growth behind me in one of the "houses" of the Palace.
And see these awesome tree roots that break buildings apart as if to step on them with their giant feet.

And its not just the ancient stuff that she wants to break down -- the new concrete infrastructure also takes a beating.

Here workmen are water blasting the Temple of the Inscriptions to clean off the algae that has grown on its consolidated limestone walls. Its a problem that ancient Maya royalty must have also struggled over - how to keep the forest habitat from eroding their grand buildings.

This is a photo that Alfred Maudslay took in the late 1800's of the palace tower. After Palenque's decline which seems to have begun around AD 800, the forest took it back again. Maudslay and his crew had to try to figure out what part of the structure was stone and what part was forest.