Day 15 - Coba, Mexico

Coba (16/01/09)

We were up very early so we were the first people into the ruins site. It really is worth the early morning to have the place to yourself. Both of us agreed that this is the best ruins sight that we have visited so far. This is largely due to the uncleared jungle that surrounds the buildings, the other sites have been cleared and had manicured lawns. Coba felt so much more authentic.

This is the main temple called Grupo Nohoch Mul. Not many people manage to get a photograph like this, since later in the day there are hundreds of people trying to climb to the top.



Adam ruining the photo opportunities for everyone else. Note the size of the steps they were each about a foot high and very uneven. The rope running up the middle is there to help the fat Americans up after eating too many tacos.

Liz clambering up 42 metres (about 138 feet for those of you still living in Mayan times) and 118 steps. We know the exact number of steps because after climbing once we got to the bottom and then decided to climb it again to give those back home an accurate step figure.

Liz half way up.

Us at the top. The view over the jungle canopy was amazing and it was so quiet and peaceful. Note we had not eaten any tacos.

The remains of the sacrificial altar.

One of the smaller buildings we could see from our view point at the top of the temple. We visited this one later on.

The descent. The little black dot on the right hand side is not an ant, it is in fact Liz.

It was incredibly huge and imposing.

A Mayan ball court. Two identical structures like this faced each other (this picture was taken on top of the other). Two teams had to knock a hard rubber ball through a stone hoop using their knees, elbows and hips. The entire losing team would be sacrificed.

One of the two stone hoops.

A stone skull in the middle of the court, presumably to remind the players what would happen if they lost.

I thought I saw a monkey with it´s banana, then I realised it was the man.

Through the jungle we saw a cactus growing in a tree.

Another monkey in the jungle.

What made Coba a more interesting site was natural features like this tree growing into the ruins. Other sites we visited had cleared the buildings.

Adam was suprised when Liz told him that not everybody in the world is as interested in ants as he is. These large red ants formed long marching trails all around the jungle. If only he had a match box!

There was a large lake near the ruins where we had heard there were quite large crocodiles however we didn´t expect to see any.

A slightly rickety wooden pier meant that we could get really close to some of the crocs. Adam has still not got over the excitment.