Mehling.org: Coba Ruins

March 16, 2008

Coba Ruins

3/16 (Sunday)

We woke up early today with plans to take a bus out to Coba and hike around the ruins. Unfortunately the day of travel, bad night's sleep and then all day in the sun, had done Holly in... she said she was going to stay behind today and sleep to see if she could head off a cold she felt coming on. I left her with some money and headed into town w/ David to buy a bus ticket to Coba. We had about a 30 minute wait before our bus was going to leave, so we walked over to a fruit juice stand and bought some fruit and muffins for breakfast. The ride to Coba took about an hour or so and the bus dropped us into a town with one main street and few little stores positioned around the bus stop.

We walked the half mile or so the entrance of the Coba, this took us past a little dock that David had previously paid to walk to the end of and view a cocodrilo up close and personal. We could see the cocodrilo at the end of the dock, but the owner said we would have to come back later when the dock was "open". After purchasing our entrance tickets, we stopped to view the first ruins in the compound -- a medium sized temple complex with an adjacent "ball court". The ball court was pretty cool -- it is amazing to think these cities had enough wealth to devote time and resources to building sporting complexes with intricate rules.

Because Coba's compound is large and spread out (much of Coba has yet to excavated), we rented bikes and started off down the paths. There were a number of small and medium sized structures, from ball courts, to temples, to utility buildings. The center piece of Coba is the main temple structure, called Nohoch Mul. It's big -- 42 meters. This is one of the last big temples that visitors are still allowed to climb the face of (many of the other sites have closed down any climbing due to decaying structures or tourists who have fallen and died). Climbing up is not really that hard. The face is pretty steep, but I was nervous that if I went up, I'd have to come back down. One misstep and you'd be toast. At the top we sat down on one side to enjoy the view -- a french tourist pointed over the side (without steps leading down, just a shear drop off) and told us that was the "efficient" way down. I told David I'd probably scoot down on my rear having seen just how high up we were. Another tourist who overheard my comment added, "there's no shame in that!" After enjoying the view and snapping some shots, we headed down. I scooted for a bit, then used the method described in the tour book -- walk down on diagonal lines, switching back and forth. It makes it easier to deal with the tall rise and narrow run of each step. After the temple, we pointed our bikes down various paths and stopped in the areas that looked interesting. Coba was large and important enough that a 100km raised and paved road (called a Sacbe, meaning White Road) had been built through this city. There were still spots that you could see the road. Hard to imagine the labor involved in constructing such an extensive road system.

After returning our rented bicycles, we walked back up the road to the ADO bus stop. It was too early to by tickets (at least, in these tiny towns, the staff disappears until around the time the bus is coming), so we crossed over to the other side of the road and drank beers until the bus (and ticket salesperson) arrived.

When we reached Tulum, David wanted to bring some street carnitas back to the hostel for lunch, however the "take away" ended up being to fatty for Hol and I so we enjoyed "veggie" tacos, with some very spicy habanero sauce. There was still plenty of light and the day was still hot enough, that we took a taxi down to the beach. We walked a ways north, towards the Tulum ruins and found a near empty spot on the beach. Three teens on spring break working on their tan and an older lady doing yoga (without her top). We swam in the water and drank beers for a bit. The girls got up and started taking "suggestive" photos of each other posing in the sand and water. Within minutes a nearly deserted beach turned into groups of boys "casually" loitering about observing the photo shoot. Eventually they cleared out, but one of the last guys hanging out was asked if he could take a shot of all three of the girls together. He beamed and was rewarded with a quick shot of the girls with his camera phone.

Time to head back to clean-up for dinner -- we walked back through the ruins and up to the hostel. We headed into town, David intent on finding his "estetica", but alas still came up empty handed. We settled on the Pedrillo Argentina steak place -- one of the nicer places in town. Hol and David split a steak w/ grilled veggies and baked potatoes. We also shared a papa azul (baked potato with a melted blue cheese sauce on top). I had the linguini carbonara. Discussed splitting ways such that we could stay in Mexico and David could head south into Belize. Finished the evening off with a stop back at the gelatto place where the girl behind the counter remembered us and assured us there was no wheat in any of the treats.

Photo Album:
http://mehling.org/gallery/v/travels/2008_mexico/Day+3/

Posted by ben at March 16, 2008 10:00 PM


« Tulum Ruins \| Main \| Sian Ka'an » March 16, 2008 Coba Ruins 3/16 (Sunday) We woke up early today with plans to take a bus out to Coba and hike around the ruins. Unfortunately the day of travel, bad night's sleep and then all day in the sun, had done Holly in... she said she was going to stay behind today and sleep to see if she could head off a cold she felt coming on. I left her with some money and headed into town w/ David to buy a bus ticket to Coba. We had about a 30 minute wait before our bus was going to leave, so we walked over to a fruit juice stand and bought some fruit and muffins for breakfast. The ride to Coba took about an hour or so and the bus dropped us into a town with one main street and few little stores positioned around the bus stop. We walked the half mile or so the entrance of the Coba, this took us past a little dock that David had previously paid to walk to the end of and view a cocodrilo up close and personal. We could see the cocodrilo at the end of the dock, but the owner said we would have to come back later when the dock was "open". After purchasing our entrance tickets, we stopped to view the first ruins in the compound -- a medium sized temple complex with an adjacent "ball court". The ball court was pretty cool -- it is amazing to think these cities had enough wealth to devote time and resources to building sporting complexes with intricate rules. Because Coba's compound is large and spread out (much of Coba has yet to excavated), we rented bikes and started off down the paths. There were a number of small and medium sized structures, from ball courts, to temples, to utility buildings. The center piece of Coba is the main temple structure, called Nohoch Mul. It's big -- 42 meters. This is one of the last big temples that visitors are still allowed to climb the face of (many of the other sites have closed down any climbing due to decaying structures or tourists who have fallen and died). Climbing up is not really that hard. The face is pretty steep, but I was nervous that if I went up, I'd have to come back down. One misstep and you'd be toast. At the top we sat down on one side to enjoy the view -- a french tourist pointed over the side (without steps leading down, just a shear drop off) and told us that was the "efficient" way down. I told David I'd probably scoot down on my rear having seen just how high up we were. Another tourist who overheard my comment added, "there's no shame in that!" After enjoying the view and snapping some shots, we headed down. I scooted for a bit, then used the method described in the tour book -- walk down on diagonal lines, switching back and forth. It makes it easier to deal with the tall rise and narrow run of each step. After the temple, we pointed our bikes down various paths and stopped in the areas that looked interesting. Coba was large and important enough that a 100km raised and paved road (called a Sacbe, meaning White Road) had been built through this city. There were still spots that you could see the road. Hard to imagine the labor involved in constructing such an extensive road system. After returning our rented bicycles, we walked back up the road to the ADO bus stop. It was too early to by tickets (at least, in these tiny towns, the staff disappears until around the time the bus is coming), so we crossed over to the other side of the road and drank beers until the bus (and ticket salesperson) arrived. When we reached Tulum, David wanted to bring some street carnitas back to the hostel for lunch, however the "take away" ended up being to fatty for Hol and I so we enjoyed "veggie" tacos, with some very spicy habanero sauce. There was still plenty of light and the day was still hot enough, that we took a taxi down to the beach. We walked a ways north, towards the Tulum ruins and found a near empty spot on the beach. Three teens on spring break working on their tan and an older lady doing yoga (without her top). We swam in the water and drank beers for a bit. The girls got up and started taking "suggestive" photos of each other posing in the sand and water. Within minutes a nearly deserted beach turned into groups of boys "casually" loitering about observing the photo shoot. Eventually they cleared out, but one of the last guys hanging out was asked if he could take a shot of all three of the girls together. He beamed and was rewarded with a quick shot of the girls with his camera phone. Time to head back to clean-up for dinner -- we walked back through the ruins and up to the hostel. We headed into town, David intent on finding his "estetica", but alas still came up empty handed. We settled on the Pedrillo Argentina steak place -- one of the nicer places in town. Hol and David split a steak w/ grilled veggies and baked potatoes. We also shared a papa azul (baked potato with a melted blue cheese sauce on top). I had the linguini carbonara. Discussed splitting ways such that we could stay in Mexico and David could head south into Belize. Finished the evening off with a stop back at the gelatto place where the girl behind the counter remembered us and assured us there was no wheat in any of the treats. Photo Album: http://mehling.org/gallery/v/travels/2008_mexico/Day+3/ Posted by ben at March 16, 2008 10:00 PM		Bookmarks Ben's Resume Ben's Lists Mehling Photo Album Flickr Photo Album Recently Archived Cozumal and Playa Palancar Akumal Desperately Seeking Lodging See you in nine days Sian Ka'an Coba Ruins Tulum Ruins Finally! 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