COBA Mexico

I don't know if many people know about Coba, a Mayan Ruin about an hour west of Tulum.  If they did, more would make the trip. Having spent the prior morning at Tulum, the boys were not quite ready to leave the heaven of Akumal again, and Kathleen graciously stayed with them.  Kate and I arose at 6:00 a.m. to arrive when the ruin opened, wanting to see what to make of mysterious Coba. It was fantastic.

Still mostly buried in jungle, you have to take the trail in the lead photo to get in and explore the ruin.  In fact, the entrance to it is so hidden Kate and I drove past it twice, thinking "that can't be it."  No big parking lot. No hawking vendors. One restaurant. Lake across the road with water lillies and an occasional crocodile. Tiny nearby town. It feels like rural Mexico at its most authentic.

Once we found the entrance, we discovered there was one guide there, selling his services.  On a lark, and wanting to support the locals, we decided to hire him.  Good decision.

He drew an amazing picture of what this place had been, before the jungle took it.

We learned of a 47 square kilometer city, filled with 55,000 people, the second largest city in all of the Maya kingdom, filled with plazas (like the one above) where people came to hear the priests pronounce your future -- literally.  As children were born they determined, based on your birthdate and a religious calendar, whether you would be a laborer, warrior, farmer, or human sacrifice. The latter was considered an "honor,"  but I have a hard time believing it did not lead to the eventual dissolution of this once great place, as mothers and fathers must have grown tired of losing this most precious of gifts to the priests and their gods.

We learned of cement made from  honey, limestone, ash, and the gum of the Chicle tree; of the five  hierarchies – King, Priest, Warrior, Laborer, Farmer; and of the Tourist tree -- the one that is red and white a peels all the time. :-)

We also learned of color; our guide helpfully pointing out tiny pieces, like the one above, showing the original colored plaster which used to cover entire buildings. And not just in red, but also blues and greens and whites. Add to this roads, perfectly straight and sometimes a hundred kilometers in length, that glowed in the moonlight from ground sea shells used as cement/base, and you see this world in a whole new and beautiful, but perhaps frightening light.

From the ruins near the entrance, Kate and I continued in along the jungle path towards our ultimate destination, the Grand Pyramid of Coba.

The route wandered past many ruins like these, saved from surrender to the relentless forest, and including the ubiquitous "Observatory" (below).  Every Maya ruin seems to have one, in some form or another.  Stars must have been a big draw back then.

After a longer than expected traipse, we made it to the grand pyramid. It is both taller and steeper than it first appears, but is still climbable, unlike the pyramid at the Toltec Chichen Itza.

The above shows a little perspective on how steep it is, or else is the dramatic tension piece of this entry, waiting to see if that old overweight guy is actually going to keel over and die on the spot. . . .

It is also a lot taller than you might think.  According to our guide, it is the second tallest in the purely Maya (as opposed to Toltec) kingdom, after the grand pyramid at Tikal, Guatemala.

The views from the top were impressive also, and not just because of the very impressive teenage girl who posed in them.

All in all, it was a very good morning. By 10:00 the tourists began to arrive (though not in near the droves that beset Tulum), and we headed back to Akumal, to snorkel away the afternoon, spotting spanish cannon, stingrays, sea turtles and a plethora of brightly colored fish.  If that is not an A+ day, I don't know what is.

Next up, Chichen Itza, Valladolid, and the surprising Ek Balam.