Old ruins, new location
Trip Start
Dec 16, 2010
1
17
21
Trip End
Jan 01, 2011
Cobá, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
We went to Coba today, probably the oldest ruins we have been to. Consequently, they are also the least preserved. We were able to make out a few carvings. See pics. Lots of walking at this site as ruins are very spread out. You can take a bike taxi if you are lazy.
After we did a little shopping in the markets. Coba is a Maya town. Most inhabitants speak Maya at home. We got some nice stuff for good prices. For lunch & pre-lunch I had these big flauta like things a man & his son were making at the gates to the ruins. They were filled with cheese & sweetened condensed milk. Yum! We also had orange juice squeezed to order. It only took one orange to make a glass of juice, they were so juicy. If I could get oranges like that at home, I'd have fresh-squeezed every day.
I have been having some bathroom issues today. Unfortunately at Coba's bathrooms you have to get a bit of toilet paper from a guy sitting at the door. The tp is free, but you are expected to tip him. I think I threw 7 or 8 pesos in the pot. You get in the bathroom & there are not seats. I have found that about 50% of the time in public bathrooms here. It's okay if it's number one, but try to do number 2 squatting over a toilet bowl. That's tricky - good thigh workout too.
On the way back we stopped & got cocos frios. A guy hacked them open for us on the spot & stuck straws in them. The juice was okay, but mostly I enjoyed picking out & eating the meat. The guy at the cocos frios stand said he lived in Chicago for 25 years, and had just moved back home a year before.
It's too late to go to the beach when we get home, besides it's been a little overcast today. We've never really had any rain since we've been here. The cloudy skies were good for climbing ruins but not for the beach.
Russell:
We got up early today to go to Coba. This was a 240ish kilometer round trip. We went there to see a huge undeveloped Mayan site that was miles wide. They recommended bikes in the book but we did not get them. We made it about a mile or so out got bored(Lazy) and came back. The sites are starting to all look alike. We walked around a lake with crocodiles in it. They would not bite Julie, even when I asked nicely. Shopping sucked. We did find one original store that we watched them make the product and bought three things. We decided to spend all of our cash on at this store so no lunch except grapes out of a wheel barrel for me and ulie had crepes with cheese and condensed milk with both of us getting a really good glass of OJ. Julie liked it so much that she had two. I guess that was a lunch, but no MEAT! Then back to the hotel. On the way back, having only 60 pesos between us, Julie wanted to try a Coco Frio(Julie had never had one before. Deprived as a child.) That means cold coconut for you gringos. They cost us 20 pesos apiece. We stopped at Tulum for money and I had a whopper and Julie had some fries at BURGER KING. OH YA! Taco's suck!
