A side trip to Cobá and Tulum

Coba is about an hour and forty minute drive from Cancun.  Our trip on Saturday, April 2nd took us to both Cobá and Tulum on the coast.  Tulum with Xaret and Xel-Ha (pronounced "Shell-ah) were sea ports of the ancient Maya that they used to trade with people on the Yucatan peninsula coast and up the gulf coast of Mexico and over to the island of Cuba.  The ports, beautiful little bays or inlets, have now been turned into tourist amusement parks where people can scuba, snorkel, and swim with dolphins.

The pyramid Nohoch Mul in Coba, 138 ft high

dedicated 30 Nov. 780 A.D.

Anyway, it was a hot day and Adrian was suffering from a bad sprain in his ankles and one of his knees.  Cobá is spread over a couple of square miles and we decided to hire these tricycle drivers for a ride for Adrian (and since I could not leave him alone, I was forced to also ride with him - I hated every second of it until I started sweating two seconds later). My brothers figured since we were riding, who were they not to support the local economy.

The ruins of Cobá are very impressive, but they are not as developed (explored) as other sites throughout the Mayan "world."  The site contains several large temple pyramids, the tallest, in what is known as the Nohoch Mul group of structures, being some 42 meters (138 ft) in height. Ixmoja is the tallest pyramid on the Yucatán peninsula.  The tallest in Mexico is in Toniná south of Palenque but we did not get to go there because of my son's sprain ankles. 

Coba was estimated to have had some 50,000 inhabitants.  The multiple residential areas consisted of around 15 houses in clusters. All the clusters were connected by the sacbeobs, or elevated walkways.

Stelae are upright stones or slabs with an inscribed or sculptured surface and they are used as a monument or as a commemorative tablet in the face of a building.  The Maya stelae are monuments that were fashioned by the Maya civilization, and as early as the Olmecs (way before the Mayas) of ancient Mesoamerica from as early as 400 BC to 900 AD.  Stelae became closely associated with the concept of divine kingship.  They were advertising "bill boards" raised to glorify the king and record his deeds.  The city of Cobá that we visited on the second day of our trip had at least 20 of these stelas, although all of them are very weathered and hard to read (that is, if I could read Maya).  But, all of these have detailed dates and stories (or glories) of the kings that erected them.  For those interested more information can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_stelae. 

We saw several stelae in Cobá, very weathered but some of them could still be read.  Here is a picture of what one looked on Saturday and what it looked like when it was erected.  

Stelae at Nohoch-Mul

 In addition to the hieroglyphics indicating the date and the story of the great "event,"  The king was pictured with his royal outfit and other symbolism, on either side of him were the nobles and the merchants (business class) kneeling down to the king, and the workers were shown underneath the king holding him up.  I can see that nothing much has changed in our modern day.  I would interpret the oligarchs  as taking the place of the king, the upper 1%  and the "paid-for" members of government kneeling to the oligarchs, and all of them standing on top of the working class - no different.

Under the Mayan arch in Coba

In the Ball Court in Coba - The rings were the goals

You did not want to lose in this game!

TULUM

Tulum was a small port, similar to Xcaret and Xel-ha.  The difference is that the town was larger and it contained ceremonial buildings.  This demonstrated that the Maya knew how to live!  It is a spectacular place.  The town had a defense wall around it.  Below is a model of how the city looked like and pictures of what it looks like now.  But what they say in the real estate business "location, location, location!"  And, Tulum could not be in a better location.

Beach at the base of the Pyramid in Tulum

My two brothers and their wives/partner accompanied us on the trip and we had a great time, including a two-hour lunch at the entrance to the site at Coba- one of the best lunches I have ever had.