Almost every weekend while I was at Pez Maya, our little group would escape basecamp to go exploring around the region. This post is going to encompass a couple of trips in which we checked out some ruins of the ancient Mayan civilization. Both ruins were in or around the modern small city of Tulum.
Coba is an ancient Mayan city just outside of Tulum. It was once one of the most powerful Mayan cities in the Yucatan, now reduced to ruin by time and nature, but it is certainly an interesting area to explore. Some people rent bikes to get around the ruins, but our group felt more than comfortable walking around. In fact, I think it would have been much more difficult on a bike, as the roads were not paved and the area was hilly. The main attraction on the site is Nohoch Mul, a giant Mayan pyramid, one of the only of it's size and kind that you can still climb to the top of. The steps leading to the top were very steep, not meant for someone afraid of heights. By the time you reach the top you are high above even the tallest trees, and you can see for miles in any direction. Other smaller, but no less interesting ruins surround this giant spectacle, including a game court where opposing teams would try to get a rubber ball through stone hoops. It's written that the losing team would sometimes be sacrificed. Losing the game could mean losing your head! Just imagine playing a game with those kind of stakes! This little outing only took about a half a day, and we did it during the same weekend that we went diving in the cenotes. My only tip here is not to plan it in the middle of the day because it does get super hot. We were lucky enough to have an awesome taxi driver that took us to get drinks and snacks on our way there, and had a cooler of ice for us to leave them in. He waited around for us while we explored the ruins so we had nice cold drinks to come back to in the end. It was very resonablely priced too, but that was probably because we had such a large group. Just outside of the site there are a few restaurants that serve really yummy food and ice cold drinks. It's a little over priced of course, but what do you expect at a tourist attraction.
Coba is an ancient Mayan city just outside of Tulum. It was once one of the most powerful Mayan cities in the Yucatan, now reduced to ruin by time and nature, but it is certainly an interesting area to explore. Some people rent bikes to get around the ruins, but our group felt more than comfortable walking around. In fact, I think it would have been much more difficult on a bike, as the roads were not paved and the area was hilly. The main attraction on the site is Nohoch Mul, a giant Mayan pyramid, one of the only of it's size and kind that you can still climb to the top of. The steps leading to the top were very steep, not meant for someone afraid of heights. By the time you reach the top you are high above even the tallest trees, and you can see for miles in any direction. Other smaller, but no less interesting ruins surround this giant spectacle, including a game court where opposing teams would try to get a rubber ball through stone hoops. It's written that the losing team would sometimes be sacrificed. Losing the game could mean losing your head! Just imagine playing a game with those kind of stakes! This little outing only took about a half a day, and we did it during the same weekend that we went diving in the cenotes. My only tip here is not to plan it in the middle of the day because it does get super hot. We were lucky enough to have an awesome taxi driver that took us to get drinks and snacks on our way there, and had a cooler of ice for us to leave them in. He waited around for us while we explored the ruins so we had nice cold drinks to come back to in the end. It was very resonablely priced too, but that was probably because we had such a large group. Just outside of the site there are a few restaurants that serve really yummy food and ice cold drinks. It's a little over priced of course, but what do you expect at a tourist attraction.
Nohoch Mul is the largest standing structure in Coba, its name means "large mound" in Mayan.
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Our lil GVI, Pez Maya crew. I was lucky to have people as eager as me to go exploring with. It was a long, steep climb to the top of the ruins, but we all made it.
This is the court of a sometimes deadly ballgame, the losing team would potentially be sacrificed!
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The ancient city of Tulum is interesting for many reasons. First it is the only Mayan city remaining on a coast line. It was once a seaport dealing mainly in the trade of turquoise and jade. It is also the only ancient Mayan city which was fortified by a wall. The ruins are beautifully preserved, reminiscent of what you may see in Europe and Rome, with ruins scattered among rolling green hills, crumbling ancient pillars, and other buildings standing nearly whole. Surprisingly, the ruins are not terribly crowded as you may think. Most people tend to simply flock to the turquoise beach found right on the site. Our group explored around the ruins first, and then did just that.
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