Day 6 - another ambitious itinerary plan to visit, tulum - coba - Tulum ruin. Ya it's a tight schedule! Did we pull it off??
Early morning we checked out and headed back to the bus station just 5 minutes away from our hotel and bought our bus ticket from Playa del Carmen to Tulum at 8am
ticket price $84pesos/ pax one way ($4.10USD)
the journey took about an hour plus, by 9:10am we arrived Tulum's ADO bus station.
Immediately we bought our bus ticket to Coba ( the one and only time they have for coba which is the 10:10am bus for ADO or one can buy 2nd class bus to Coba, Mayab ( also own by ADO) but i'm not sure about its schedules)
ticket price from Tulum to Coba is $90pesos/pax /one way ($4.40USD)
we didn't buy a return ticket as one can always buy the return ticket at Coba (that way we have flexibility to our return trip(maybe taxi if we finished early) as there is only one ADO bus from Coba to Tulum which is the 3:30pm bus)
now 9:10am we only had 1 more hour till our bus come at 10:10am. From the bus station we took the taxi to our hotel which was just a 17 minutes walk away or 6 minutes drive away(I'm not going to even try to walked with my heavy backpack). Cost $50pesos for both of us ($2.40USD). dropped our bag at our hotel and did a quick checked in and this time we walked to the bus station and took 20 minutes to reached the bus station and we still have a good 15 minutes spare before 10:10am.
However the bus was late and came at 10:30am
The distance from Tulum to Coba is about 45minutes - 1 hour drive away and the bus dropped us right in front of the entrance
* return ticket can be purchased right where the bus dropped us in a small restaurant. Same price $90pesos ($4.40USD)
Didn't had time to eat any breakfast we just ate some granola bar and i bought a cup of cut jicama for $25pesos ($1.20USD)
map of Coba
It's a really huge place lots to explore. Entrance fee to the ruin is $70pesos/ pax ($3.40USD)
Coba (which means 'water stirred by wind' in Mayan language) is an ancient Mayan city. It is estimated that the population in Coba in the 8th century was ca. 55,000 inhabitants
this is the sacred ball game court, where the game of Pok-A-Tok was played.
the game is played by 2 teams of 7 athletes or between 2 players and the objective of the game is to get a ball through a narrow stone hoop placed of the court wall.
According to Mayan beliefs, their deities enjoyed watching and admired the victors. So at the end of the game, the winner or the winning captain was honored by being beheaded. His reward was an immediate place in Tamoanchan (Mayan heaven). This sacrificial ceremony was common at Chichen Itza
that's the hoop, it's quite high. And the players were only allowed to used their body, elbows, knees and thighs to pass
this is the largest concentration of buildings in all of Coba. It comprises 43 structures, various courtyards, vaulted rooms, a grand plaza, a ball court and several stelae (standing stone slab with hieroglyphic)
freaky looking carved head skull
' La Iglesia' (church), one of the larger pyramids here but no climbing
one of many stelae here
personal guide for hire, to know more about Coba
there is a small tunnel chamber underneath the pyramid
secret chamber?
ok one more pic :P
iguana hanging out at the pyramid
another tunnel
more stelae
as it's really a huge area, Coba .....so there are also bicycle for rent to get around the ruins
or hire someone to do the job,
as usual we like to walk :P
more pyramid
another ball court
lots of tourist
finally after walking for more than 30 minutes,
the star of Coba is the great pyramid of Nohuch Mul means 'great mound' in Mayan language
Nohuch Mul, tallest Mayan temple in Yucatan Peninsula, with 120 steps.
Climbing the pyramid is tricky as it's steep and uneven and only a rope to hold on. Please only wear proper footwear to climb the pyramid....it's dangerous without proper shoes
*climb at your own risk
after a tiring sweaty climb up the steep steps, we made it although i did stop a few times to catch my breath
luckily there are shade up at the summit and nice breeze to rest and cool off
and not to mention beautiful vast green view of Coba, definitely worth the climb.
i can't remember seeing so many trees like this in a long time. Simple amazing!
yeah i did it!!! bragging rights forever
on top of the pyramid there is a small temple like structure
one last look
after a nice rest we head back down . The way up is nothing, going down is the most challenging and the steps are really really slippery as they have been smoothed over from thousands of visitors footsteps over the decades.
the only safe way to go down is to take your time and do the butt slide down one step at a time
luckily the sun was blocked by the clouds on my way down, so i could take my time to butt slide down and rest as long as i like.
and we made it down in one piece
couldn't resist :)
now we head to another end of Coba, Macanxoc
more pyramid along the way
this is called the Painting Complex, with a temple on top that were richly painted on the interior side
after what seem like a very long walk we reached the other end, Macanxoc
it's less crowded here as most people or tours skipped this part of Coba. I can see why
lots of stelae here
there's not much explanation here....so not sure what this area is for
and that' it
and that's the end of our trip to Coba,
we were so hungry at this point and we had some quick snack at a restaurant in the area
we eventually bought the 3:30pm ADO bus back to Tulum.
Since it was already 3pm. We spend about 3 hours in Coba.
Just nice our bus arrive. We were back in Tulum at 4:40pm
bought our ticket to Chichen Itza for the next day. Best to buy the ticket in advance as they ran out fast, because the bus starts from Playa del Carmen - Tulum - Valladolid - Chichen Itza. We bought ours the 9:05am bus and we are set!
Price to Chichen Itza is $238pesos and $180pesos for the return trip total $418pesos/ person for round trip ($20USD).
it's quite pricey but it's a 2 hours plus bus ride one way
once we reached Tulum. I was so hungry i could faint. We stumble upon a local restaurant selling rotisserie chicken on the way.
we were so hungry we order a whole chicken came with 3 sides( rice, tortilla and coleslaw) and a salsa.
it was great and Harry Potter was also playing on tv...... how could it be any better than this??
after a heavy meal, of cause we couldn't finish the chicken, we had the rest packed and save it for later. I'm sure we can finish it after a nice swim @ our hotel. We tried to cycle to the beach area but damn! it was far, and it was getting dark so we turned back. But chilling at the hotel was really nice and relaxing
p.s: we finished the chicken....burp!
Next day Chichen Itza and Cenote Ik Kil
~ hasta mañana ~
No comments:
Post a Comment