Coba is one of the only Mayan ruins in the area that still allows you to climb. All the other popular ruins are off limits for climbing. So that's why we chose it. Figured we might as well do that one before it gets roped off as well.
We had about a 1.5 hour drive into the jungle to get to Coba. Drove through a few little Mayan villages along the way...
(Loooooove those hammocks. Love. If I could have thought of a spot that would even have the remotest chance of working out at our place to set one up...it would have been in my suitcase faster than you can say Hola! But we just don't have a spot. So my suitcase came home empty.)
This is the highschool for all the neighbouring villages. Highschool goes up to grade nine. That's it.
Our tour guide was great. His english was very good so the language barrier wasn't a problem. We ended up making some great friends for the day with other couples on the tour. Do you see Keith in the middle of the pic (wearing black)? The couple on his left were a honeymooners from Wisconsin - really nice couple. Then there is a couple on his right side that are standing apart - but they were together. They were from England and just getting away for a breather. They own a pub and hotel there. They said it was quite the party there when the royal wedding happened - and very good for business. Ha! Unfortunately we were all staying at different resorts so at the end of the day it was goodbye and that was it. But I have to say that meeting super nice people like that helps to make a great day even more enjoyable.
This particular ruin was off limits.
Please excuse how wilted we look. There were no breezes in the jungle. And that day, the temps were pushing into the high 40's with the humidex. YOWZERS!
We rode bikes around to get to all the various ruins....they are spread out. It would have taken forever to walk them. The good thing about biking was, the faster you went, the more breezes you felt rushing against you. Of course, that worked against you when you stopped and you were extra hot from all the fast biking!!
Betcha never knew I was a biker chick, eh? Now you know different! LOL!
This was the main ruin that we were allowed to climb. Doesn't look too bad, does it?
Keith took off at a fast pace...
When I stopped halfway up to take this photo (above)....I just about lost it. Because you see...I looked down. NEVER DO THAT! I have this bad habit. I will go up ladders. But I get all freaked out and won't/can't go down them. Well...this ruin climb was kinda like that. Just about as steep too. Oh my gosh. I didn't know what to do. I decided to quit looking down and continue going up because I was halfway already. I figured I could worry about coming down once I was up there. How's that for strategy? What was I expecting? A helicopter to come and rescue me? I'm not exactly sure, but I put my camera away and did keep going...upwards.
The view from the top. Overlooking the jungle canopy. See those people down there? Resemble ants, huh?
I tend to take "foot pictures" of us. Proves we were there! ;-)
As far as your eye could see...was jungle. And then here and there, a ruin would be poking up through the jungle treetops...
Once I got up to the top, I was feeling much better and more confident. In fact, as it all turned out...going down was a piece of cake for me. Not sure why. But I much preferred it to the climb up. Bizarre! Thankfully, no rescue helicopters had to be called in for me. ;-)
We were glad to see a paramedic keeping a watchful eye on things as we were leaving. It's just crazy how you are allowed to climb that thing. There are no guardrails or anything up there. Just one lone little rope up the front to hold onto if you need to. Craziness!
Another ruin we checked out was where the Mayans used to play a game (don't know what it was called) but it was kinda like a combination of basketball/soccer/hockey. They played with a 5 pound ball made out of India rubber and their arms/hands weren't allowed to touch the ball - they could only use their bodies to move the ball and score. They would run up and down the sides of the walls below and try to score through the two hoops at the top. Very interesting. Do you remember learning about that in school? I kinda think I do...
After we were done with our tour of the Coba ruins, we went to a pottery studio where we learned about some Mayan pottery techniques and then got to play with clay and make something...
There was a lagoon across from the pottery studio. That had it's own resident crocodile. We had to go and check him out. He was pretty mellow...see him hanging out there towards the bottom?
Can you figure out which shadows belong to Keith and me?
There were some little boys fishing on the dock. One of them had caught a little sunfish. Well, this little guy below just loved the fish. He was so cute. He played with it one minute and the next minute was stamping his foot on it. We were laughing so hard. What's up with little boys??? That type of thing is just programmed into the male DNA I think. His poor dad was trying to get him to stop stamping on the fish in front of the tourists. Even with a language barrier you can figure that out in a hurry! LOL!
Here's a better one of our "shadows"....
Next up was dinner. We went to the little town by Coba and enjoyed a traditional Mayan meal. It was held in an open air restaurant, overlooking the lagoon...the sun was setting...our British friends joined us at our table and it was a fantastic time. We were all so tired from our busy day in the heat that it was the perfect way to end the day. In fact, after a while, the tour guide came over to us and said something to the effect that " unfortunately it was time to go...everyone else was waiting for us in the van." What?! HA! Guess we were just thinking we could hang out there all night.
But the evening was not over. The final thing we did was watch a Mayan show. Now I *think* they said it was held in a cenote that didn't fill with water. Cenotes are like underground caves/caverns that are filled with fresh water. This one didn't have water in it. They use it for plays/performances. It was really cool. This was our view when we arrived....looking down in. There was firelight everywhere...the sun was almost down so it was getting dark...the birds in the jungle were twittering....it was magical...very hard to capture with your camera though.
The performance was all in Mayan and was about their traditions, etc.
At the very end, they played a game of that basketball/hockey/soccer game that I was talking about earlier. They used that wall (in the photo above) to show how it would have been played. Very tricky. We all gained new appreciation for the skills that are needed to play. They even added fire into the equation as they were playing. I'm not sure if that was just for special effects or if that was what they actually did back then. Crazy!!
And that was the end of our evening. We headed back into our tour van and an hour and a bit later, we said goodbye to our friends and were dropped off back at our resort. An awesome day!
And just for good measure....our "anniversary" photo this year. I love shadows!!
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