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!