Plus, we had kind of an ambitious schedule for this, our last day of having wheels. We'd planned to hit
a) Coba - another ruin site set in the jungle;
b) Gran Cenote - for a cooling dip between Coba and Tulum;
c) Tulum - the ruin site stunningly overlooking the Caribbean; and
d) Akumal - "Place of the Turtles". The beach has an amazing lagoon where you can snorkel with turtles as they munch on seagrass.
Oops, I've kind of gone and given the plot away, haven't I?!? No matter. There's still that element of suspense in finding out whether we managed to do the lot, right? I mean, that is a lot of sightseeing to cram into one day, particularly as we had to return the car by 5pm.
Moving right along.
So we left this, the view from our new room.....
......and felt somewhat guilty and humbled as we drove past dwellings like this on our way to Coba:
Having left at 7am, we drove through the village of Coba and past the crocodile-infested lake (cool!), and rocked up in the carpark at the archeological site right on 8am. Go us!!
This is the crocodile-infested lake:
Coba isn't a large site in terms of the number of structures, but it is rather sprawling, and you end up walking quite a few kilometres. That was fine with us, as we relished the exercise and were keen to look out for animals and birds in the surrounding jungle. But for the less ambulatory-inclined, there was the option of renting a bike, or, for the really sessile, of being chaufeurred around on a pedibike (that's like a tricycle with a seat at the back). I have to say, it was quite the sight watching what seemed to be typically huge, fat couples squished onto the back seat and being pedalled around by a wiry little Mexican duds half their size.
Another interesting thing about Coba is its network of sacbeob, or stone-paved avenues. Coba is a hub for more than 40 scabeob, with the longest running nearly 100km from the basde of the grear Nohoch Mul pyramid to the Maya settlement of Yaxuna.
We began at the Grupo Coba, where we happened upon a colony of vultures in tree:
There was also a well-restored juego de pelota (ball court). The playing space is tiny compared to "Rod Laver Arena" at Chichen Itza. Maybe it's like half-court tennis here:
This is La Iglesia, or The Church, a huge pyramid that you're not allowed to climb. There's a covered stelae in front of it.
And here's Sean in one of the corbeled-vault passages at Grupo Coba. He's loving the Indiana Jones experience. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, apart from some friendly Germans on bicycles.
Here's another view of the ball court:
We walked a kilometre eastwards and ended up at the Grupo de las Pinturas, or the Paintings Group.
Lonely Planet reckons that this stelae depicts a regal figure standing over two others, one of them kneeling with his hands bound behind him, while sacrificial captives lie beneath the feet of the ruler at its base. Lonely Planet also says you need to use your imagination, because the stelae at Coba are quite worn. It's not wrong. If it wasn't for the helpful accompanying drawings, we would have had to drink quite a bit of tequila to unlock our imaginations.
There's another juego de pelota (ball court) on the way to Nohoch Mul. In the middle of the court is a carved stone skull. Is this meant to be a motivation to win, or a threat of what will happen if you lose? (I would have thought it would be a damn nuisance - you'd trip over it all the time!)
And just to inspire the players to even greater heights, there's also a carved relief of a jaguar. I like jaguars.
We arrived at Grupo Nohoch Mul. This is Xaibe, a semicircular stepped building that has been almost fully restored. Its name means "the Crossroads", as it marks the junction of four separate sacbeob.
At the northern end of the group lies Nohoch Mul itself. "Nohoch Mul" means "Big Mound", but it's also known as the Great Pyramid, which sounds more impressive. Nohoch Mul is 42m high, making it the second-tallest Maya structure on the Yucatan Peninsula. What's the tallest?
Estructura II at Calakmul, at 45m high. Ha! Been there, climbed that!
We realised that, in all our multiple pyramid climbing ventures, we'd not taken photos of one another in the process of actually ascending or descending. So I stayed at the bottom with the camera, and Sean took it in his head to run up Nohoch Mul.
Just look at him go!
He made it to the top!!
What was super-cool was how there were so few people around. I joined Sean at the top (he was still recovering!) and we once again found ourselves On Top Of The World:
It looks similar to Calakmul, yes, but here the jungle was a lot more scrubby and low-lying. Calakmul had a taller canopy and somehow a stronger sense of being in another world, probably because it was so far off the beaten track (and you could see to Guatamala).
We picked the most precarious of pyramids on which to take our ascending/descending photos. Most of the pyramids had steep stairs, but Nohoch Mul's were super steep. They were also irregular, worn and uneven.
Here's the view looking down. You know it's pretty scary when they have a rope assist available.
Sean climbed down with the Nikon, at which point I realised we hadn't taken any photos of me On Top Of The World. I was beginning to lament this fact until I remembered that I had my trusty iPhone in my passport wallet around my neck (never leave home without it, folks!)
Thank you, Hipstamatic App!
I'm On Top Of Nohoch Mul!! (That's me with the triumphant arms on the top).
Drat it, here come the tourists.
Tourist hoarde invading, I decide to begin my descent, and to eschew the rope as much as possible, in so much as it was being yanked around by unfit people ascending.
I favour the zig-zag method:
And I made it safely down! I look kind of constipated taking this last step. It's hard work.
This is the side of the ball court as we're returning from the Grupo Nohuch Mul. I'm a bit of a sports nut.
By this point the paths were chock-a-block with plump tourists perched atop pedibikes like roosting chickens, while their valiant drivers cycled them along while sweating in the heat. There were also huge groups invading on foot. It was a good time to leave, and it made us realise what a good decision it had been to have arrived early.
When we're arrived, we had been the only car in the carpark. Now it was chock-a-block, and the vendors were out in force. To the left of this shot below was a veritable platoon of tour coaches.
Time to adios the joint and head to Gran Cenote. We were hot after all that walking, and were hanging out for a swim. Alas, it began to rain as we left Coba, but in true tropical fashion all was well 40km later:
Unlike Samula and Dzitnup back in Valladolid, Gran Cenote is a partially exposed sinkhole. It's so pretty.
We walked down multiple flights of stairs and came to the beautiful azure blue water sprinkled with lily pads.
I lost no time getting amongst it! The water in cenotes is so cool and clear. It's the best freshwater swimming I've ever done.
There was a whole bunch of scuba divers getting ready to go in. Gran Cenote is the entrance to a whole network of underground tunnels and caves, that are completely water-filled and can only be explored on scuba. Now I'm as keen a diver as the rest of them, but I can't cope with the thought of cave diving. I don't like the fact that you have to completely rely on my gear in the absence of an airspace, and that in the event of emergency, you can't turn around in a tunnel, but have to exit backwards, feet first. They can keep their cave diving.
As it was, I nearly drowned myself on the snorkel. You see the cave behind Sean in the photo below? (Yes, Sean went for a swim too, this time).
Okay, so I was snorkelling around under the rock overhang, admiring all the fish (there were guppies and platys and it was like being in my own home aquarium!) Suddenly I spotted a bunch of legs under the water in a cave ahead of me. I checked to confirm the legs belonged to snorkellers rather than divers, and on finding this to be the case, I duck-dived under the stalactite wall and popped up in the new cave. Only problem was, it was pitch dark. I was quietly treading water, when I decided to move back to make sure I wasn't taking up too much space. I suddenly bumped my head gently against the wall, and then my airspace disappeared - I couldn't breathe! After a few moments of panic I swam forwards and up, but it took a couple of attempts in the dark. One of the group of legs could tell I was frightened, and took it upon himself to helpfully guide me out (even though the exit options were clearly visible underwater).
It was HIGHLY EMBARRASSING. Cenotes can be scary places, people.
Sean and I took it in turns to swim, because one of us always wanted to be on the little jetty with the camera.
On my third swim, having gotten over the fright of nearly drowning, I swam around to the far side of the cenote and discovered this entrance:
Swimming under the overhang, you emerge into a whole new area. It's very shallow, and you have to be careful not to disturb the silty bottom. I came to another cave, where I saw a turtle, and huge fish. It was awesome.
By the time we'd finished at Gran Cenote, and downed an entire tube of Pringles between us (pyramid climbing and cenote swimming gives you an appetite), we thought it might be getting late, but it was only 1pm. Plenty of time for Tulum! I was happy about this, as Tulum was the site Sean was most willing to drop from today's agenda. We'd heard that it could be absolutely crawling with tourists, making for a rather Not Fun Mayan Experience. Tourists or no, I was still keen, since I'd seen amazing photos of ruins perched right on the cliff overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean.
And as it turned out, we got lucky. We must have been out of sync with the tour bus schedules, since the site was relatively quiet. Not so the road from the carpark to the ruins. I haven't seen that many shops, cafes and stalls lining the road to a ruin since Tanah Lot in Bali. We pretty much had to prattle "No gracias" on a loop to dissuade the many hawkers. Although we did see this pretty bird right where we paid our site entrance fee:
I guess the crazy soliciting was to be expected: Tulum is one of the most scenic and most accessible of the ruins: it's a mere 60km down the road from Playa del Carmen.
But man, was it worth it!
I agree with Lonely Planet: the extents and structures are of a modest scale and the late post-Classic design, workmanship and ornamentation are inferior to those of earlier, more grandiose projects, but the setting more than makes up for it:
Yes, and if that's not stunning enough, throw some red flowers into the mix:
Or a couple of enthusiastic Aussies!
The building in the above photos is El Castillo (the Castle). Yes, the water really was that blue. No, you couldn't swim at this beach, but only because it was turtle nesting season.
Sean apparantly thinks this coconut palm needs a hand to stay upright:
On the other side of El Castillo, there's a beach where you CAN swim. Oh. My. God.
As much as I was busting to jump into the Caribbean with El Castillo looming over me, we thought it best to finish exploring the (very small) site first. It's only 380 metres long on the coastal side, and 170 m wide, bounded by a huge stone wall. This photo is looking inland from the cliff. It shows most of the structures and the wall in the background:
The site is also jiving with iguanas. Seriously, there are so many that you risk treading on them.
Below is a photo of the Templo de las Pinturas, a monument that may have been the last built by the Maya before the Spanish conquest. With its columns, carvings and two story construction, it's probably the most interesting structure at Tulum. Knowing that really made us appreciate some of the earlier, amazing buildings we'd seen, such as the Governor's Palace at Uxmal, and El Palacio at Palenque. Having been on the road covering no less than six Mayan ruin sites in seven days, we were at risk of having the sites merge into one great pile of ancient rock. Taking our time and paying close attention to the differences in architectural styles and ornamentation certainly enriched the experience, but even so, my head was overflowing with pyramids, stelae and ball courts by the time we hit Tulum.
Enough ruins. It was time for me to hit the Caribbean! I lost no time in getting down the stairs to the beach.
Hi Sean! Thanks for looking after all the stuff and taking my picture!
Can you tell I'm just a bit excited about being in the Caribbean at Tulum?
There's always some bozo who feels the need to go out further than anyone else. (On this occasion it might have had something to do with the fact that most of the other folks couldn't actually swim).
Hi Sean! Look at me in the CARIBBEAN!!
It was thrilling swimming in that crystal clear, turquoise water, lying back and looking up at El Castillo perched on the cliff above.
Our entire Tulum adventure took less than 90 minutes, which meant that we had plenty of time to keep our date with the tortugas (turtles) at Akumal, about 25km up the road on the way back to Playa del Carmen.
Everyone we'd spoken to had raved about Akumal. Our visit started off well - we drove into a parking lot at the beach, where I thought we would have to pre-pay. This is always tricky when you're not sure how long you're going to be gone (and when you're in the water with no watch!) But when I spoke to the parking attendant, he said "We only charge you for how long you stay - go and have fun and pay when you come back". Just a little bit of kindness can make you feel so welcome.
And they care about their wildlife:
This was the lagoon at Akumal.
We didn't have an underwater camera. This was unfortunate, because we swam out about 100m offshore to where the seagrass was growing, and before long we found a turtle - and another, and another. In all, we saw four of these beautiful creatures, who were all placidly munching on the seagrass. You could actually hear them!
Munch, munch, munch, crunch, masticate. Swim calmly up to the surface for a breath. Recommence munching.
To see these amazing creatures on our own, as opposed to being as part of a tour, was incredible, because we got to spend as much time as we liked just floating above them, or diving down to swim alongside them. They had a calm majesty and serenity and somehow managed to convey a sense of age and wisdom. Swimming with these huge green turtles was a highlight of our trip.
On the way back in to shore, Sean managed to lose a piece of his snorkel. Although it was like looking for a needle in a haystack, I made a systematic search for it, radiating out from where Sean was standing, and good grief, I actually managed to find it. This capped our afternoon - Sean was delighted, especially because we were booked to swim with whale sharks the next day and having our gear was imperative.
We bade farewell to Akumal and drove back to Playa del Carmen, where we dropped the car off (I was slightly concerned since I'd left a wet patch on the seat after my Caribbean frolic, but it was all good!), grabbed a burrito and a smoothie on the Fifth Avenue strip, and caught the free shuttle bus back to Royal Haciendas.
It felt weird to be without wheels.
But there was little time to dwell on this: we had an early-morning date with whale sharks!
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