Twenty-Four Hours in Chicago

This trip actually happened right before our Mexico vacation!  I had to travel to The Windy City for work and I was there for about 24 hours.  I did not have a lot of time for sight-seeing but I made the most of it!  The weather was perfectly spring-crisp, which was great for hustling around on foot.

After checking in at my hotel on the Magnificent Mile I decided to walk north and see what the shopping scene was all about.  Let's just say that my wallet almost burst into flame.

This store sells thousand-dollar down coats

I wasn't planning on going to the top of the John Hancock Tower*.  I was just going to walk to the base and also look at an old Gothic Revival water tower that is about a block away.  The lobby looked empty.  I could not believe my luck.  I went inside and walked up to the ticket counter and the employees told me that there was no wait for the 1,000-foot elevator ride.  I said "take my money!" and wandered through miles and miles of rope-enclosed hallways with informative exhibits that keep visitors entertained during peak visitor times.

Having been also to the top of the Willis Tower, I think the views from John Hancock are far superior.  Maybe it was because I was visiting at sunset but the views of the Gold Coast to the north and brilliant blues of Lake Michigan were spectacular.  I also recommend their bar.

 

At the end of the night I was tired so I enjoyed a party-of-one with some beer that I purchased around the corner and had Lou Malnati's delivered to my room.  So. Worth. It.

The next morning I had some time to kill so I went for a long walk to Millennium Park, bummed around downtown, and then went to my work thing.  By the early evening it was time to head back to the airport so I walked back to the hotel to collect my bag.  Here are some photos from that day:

Outside of The Rookery (1888), former offices of Architectural Company Burnham and Root 

Interior, showing a portion of original ironwork.  When Frank Lloyd Wright was commissioned to remodel the lobby all of the iron was encased in gilded marble.  What were ya' thinking, Frank!?

** Within the last year the John Hancock tower was stripped of its name for...legal reasons, as far as I can tell.  It is officially named only by its street address but Chicagoans refuse to drop the old name (I'm sure there are still a few Sears Tower fans out there).

Tulum: Cenote Dos Ojos

Cenote Dos Ojos is part of a park that has five different cenotes.  A few are open "pits" but the ones we visited were the two "eyes".  Two sinkholes, about 70 meters in diameter, are connected by a 400-meter underwater cave.  Hans and I only had snorkels so we had to go between the eyes on foot but we were able to see many dive teams with flashlights weaving under stalactites and through the various caves.  In fact, this is one of the most well-known underground river systems in the world.  Going on a SCUBA dive here must be amazing.

That's pretty much all I have to write here.  We took a bunch of photos, paddled around for about an hour, and then went back to the hotel.

We had done a bunch of packing the night before so all we had to do was shower, change, and head to the airport.  Our flight was delayed by a couple of hours so we got home pretty late at night.  Overall this was a fun trip.  Tulum and it's beaches were nice but I was glad we had other activities to fill each day.

 

 

 

 

One of the dive tours 

Goodbye, cute little hotel

Adios, Mexico

Tulum: Cobá

What's for breakfast?  Tacos!

What's for lunch?  Burrito!

And dinner?  More tacos!

Not complaining.  Not even a little bit.

This morning we went to a breakfast taqueria that locals favor and I inhaled some of the best darn tacos I ever ate.  Hans had a torta.  Fresh pineapple water was very refreshing.  Our total bill was about five US dollars.  You read that correctly.

It was another early morning drive in the car but this time it took only 45 minutes to get to Cobá, a much older Maya city than Chichen-Itzá.

Cobá was settled around 100 BC near a series of lagoons.  It became an important trading hub, as evidenced by the arrow-straight roads, or sacbeob, that intersect through and around it.  One of the roads extended some sixty miles to the town of Yaxuna.  At one point had a close relationship with present-day Guatemala.  Around AD 400-800 the town was at its peak population of 40,000 and controlled most of the Yucatan Peninsula until Chichen-Itzá wrested control of the domain following the Itzá conquest.  It eventually had the same fate as most Maya communities: Abandonment, brief small occupation in the 12th century, then nothing.  Slowly the jungle reclaimed the land.

Just past the ticket booth there is a large bicycle rental area.  I saw in our guidebook that the ruins were relatively spread out and told Hans it might be fun to bike through the jungle.  For $5 we each picked out a bicycle and pedaled along the bumpy trail.  In the end we were extremely grateful for being able to catch a small breeze by bicycle as the air was repressively humid.  Not too far away we heard the rumbling of thunder and we caught a few sprinkles.

We biked toward the farthest-away bit of ruins first and arrived at the tallest pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula, Nohoch Mul.  It's taller than El Castillo at Chichen Itzá!   I became nervous while looking at the height of the thing (138 feet).  Nohoch Mul is one of few Maya pyramids that you are still permitted to climb.  As I write this it's a matter of time before even the one at Cobá is deemed off-limits by the Mexican government.  If you check out reviews of the ruins online you can read tourist accounts of local guides who say the pyramid will be shut down next month, then next month....

The climb looked much more daunting in person.  At least it was early in the morning and there were very few people on the steps and top.

Hans started before me and I basically crawled on all fours, focusing on not looking anywhere except the steps in front of me.  To keep my mind occupied I counted each step.  I knew it was about 124 so that helped me to know when it was okay to look up again.  I panicked a little when I reached the base of the top platform because the last four steps wound a little too close to the steep side for my comfort level.  Hans offered me a hand and I stumbled to the top, thoroughly sweaty and relieved.

Looking at the ground made me dizzy and I wondered out loud how on earth I was going to climb down.

"Carefully," said one of the other four tourists at the top of the pyramid.

"Undignified," I added.  We all laughed.  But seriously though...

Off to the south we saw a beautiful rainbow over the jungle below.  A small thunderstorm lazily floated by.

When it was time to descend I returned my focus to the number of steps and scooted on my butt with one hand on the safety rope.  Undignified, but safe.

We enjoyed exploring one of the ball courts and had it entirely to ourselves.  The rental bikes definitely proved their worth because after the pyramid hike we were both extremely sweaty.  As we gradually made our way to the ruins close to the entrance it was of course much busier.  There was a second ball court and a deceptively tall "Church" that was covered in trees.

Back at the parking lot it was time for more Fresca!

Nohoch Mul, twelve stories of terror!

View from the top!

Faint rainbow in the left photo.  Other ruins peeking through trees in the right photo

*Gulp*

I was much happier in this picture than I look 

Didn't die

This building has been named Xaibe, a Maya word for crossroads because of the sacbeob that run next to it.  Archaeologists aren't sure what the building's purpose was.

One of the ball courts.  Mah face is sweat-ay.

Temple of Frescoes

One of the many Stelae at Cobá.  These stones have images depicting the Maya creation story or religious ceremonies.  For preservation they are all covered by small palapas.

This grouping of ruins were thought to have significant ceremonial purposes

La Iglesia (The Church, 74 feet tall)

We took a break back at the hotel and walked to the other side of town for lunch at Burrito Amor.  As much as I expected it to serve mediocre touristy food the burritos were actually really great.  They even had some ass-kicking-ly spicy sauces as condiments.

By the time we had returned to the hotel we were worn out by the afternoon sun.  We hid in the room.  I took a nap, stepped outside briefly to buy some locally-made ceramics at a family-run store around the corner and later I took a five-minute dip in the pool.

Later we took a taxi to the beach road.  We had dinner and drinks (I had tequila on the brain) at Mateo's Grill.  I had the best. fish. tacos. ever.

Lunch

Dinner

This was our last full day in Mexico.  Tomorrow we have one activity planned in the morning and then we're heading back to the airport.  It's been fun, Tulum!