Coba

 

I was going to skip the Coba ruins photos

photos of ruins can get boring really fast

I was just looking through them and realized that there are several interesting things

about Coba and the ruins, so

 

 

we did the right thing and were the first in line when the park opened at 9

we walked straight to the bike rental and a few minutes later we were heading up the hill

 

 

we headed to the farthest structures at the lower right of this map

 

 

 

this is the same road the builders used 2,000 years ago

 

the area we headed to is called the Macanxoc Group

it held great ceremonial significance as it was full of stelae and temples

 

 

one of the stela was the Mayan long count calender

it refers to the date 12-21-2012 when the Mayan long count

will complete its first Great Cycle - equal to 5,125 years

 

 

the Mayan calender is really a trip

I do not pretent to understand it but it is a series of circles

different ah?

 

 

the area was very accessible and we got to hang out in the temples

for over an hour by ourselves

talking to the gods

 

before the first tourists arrived

 

 

next we rode a couple miles to the 2nd tallest pyramid in the Yucatan

again we lucked out and got there before the crowds

this is the first photo I took

 

before we left it was covered in humans

it is one of the last pyramids in Mexico that they let you still climb

several die every year trying

 

 

another striking building called the cross roads -  Xaibe

perfectly straight and wide roads go out from here more than 60 miles

pretty amazing for thousands of years ago....

 

see the small trees in the photo above

the whole place was full of trees, it was lovely, shady and cool

the first ruins I have seen that were truly craved from the jungle

 

 

on our way out the parking lot was full of tour buses

we were so glad we got there early

on the way back to the hotel we stopped at Victors

 

 

and bought a couple wonderful batiks of Mayan gods

 

 

he had several and it was hard to choose

 

 

he had built an interesting building

 

 

display in front and he worked in the back

 

 

 

we went back to the hotel and I slept all afternoon

 

next stop Akumal

and the best snorkeling I have ever seen

 

 

Mayan symbols