trip report - coba

Better late then never...an update on our summer trip.

We spent one of our days exploring the history of the area.  We started the day with a trip to the archaeological ruins at Coba

Coba is where we took the picture I posted about.
The Mayans must have been some tiny folks because although the kids could walk uprightly through must of the tunnels and walkways

Derek and I could not.  Derek especially would have been a giant amongst these people.  

Let me throw in a disclaimer here...it was beasty hot and humid where we were.  Yes we are dripping sweat in all these pictures making us shiny and repulsive to look at it.  I apologize for subjecting you to such horror and disgust.  However these posts will soon be part of our family blog journal and so the hideous pictures must stay for posterity - avert your eyes if you must. This one of Derek and I is especially bad because not only are we a sweaty mess but we look possessed of the devil.
After climbing a few smaller ruins we headed off for a walk in the jungle.  At this point we sang praises because of the shade (although we still sweated like pigs - nice visual, huh?)  The walk was beautiful.  It was neat to see un-excavated areas amongst the trees.  A majority of Coba has yet to be unearthed.  We would see big hills and mounds all around us that were evidence of more ruins since the area is naturally all flat.
We also saw lots of cool little wonders - this spider being a highlight.  His yellow color was amazing. 
After the walk we arrived at more ruins.  This skull was in the ground in the middle of a Mayan ball field used to play an ancient game.  Stories differ but from what we've heard either the winner or the loser of the game would get a part of his body pierced with a sword or knife (yes, that part of the body) and then be put to death.  eeekkkk!

Note:  I decided to see if I could find anything about this ancient game.  If you are interested you can read more here.
We finally arrived at our destination - Nohoch Mul.  Derek and I have climbed this pyramid before but we were anxious for the kids to have the experience.  This is us before we headed up to the top.
I love the texture of this sign that is on the top of the pyramid off to the side of the temple entrance. Not sure what it says - probably something about plummeting to your death.
At the top - after a steep, hot climb up crumbly stairs that are not remotely safe.  See the little dot off to the side of Emily's shoulder?  That's another pyramid off in the distance.
The whole family -proof that I sucked up my fears long enough to get to the top.  Unfortunately going up isn't the worst part.  On the way up I just didn't look anywhere but up - coming down is a whole different story.
This is us towards the end of our descent.  The pained look on my face is fear that at any moment one of us is going to slip and fall and sacrifice ourselves to the mayan gods.  While my whole family walked down the pyramid I slid down it on my bottom.  The only time I stood coming down was to take pictures.  Looks like I'm not alone though.  See the guy behind me? He came down behind me and spent a good deal of time on his bum as well.  So there, now I feel better about myself.
After the climb our sorry selves were not up to the long jungle walk so for $6 we hitched a ride down the long jungle path.
Our mode of transportation?  These sweet little bikes powered by some tougher than me folks. Biking tourist back and forth in the heat and humidity doesn't seem much fun but we are grateful that there were nice men there willing to do it.  It made for a much more enjoyable trip back to our cab.
For anyone thinking about going to this area of Mexico add Coba to your list of must sees.  It's one of my favorite places even though I must risk death to fully appreciate it.

makes me smile

Derek suggested that I use my free time today blogging about our trip.  Great idea but instead I took a nap. Although I feel a little bit guilty about my 2 hour nap I use the excuse that I really did need it. Since coming home from the trip I haven't been in bed before 1 am most nights.  I deserve the nap right?!?!  Besides that now I am awake and kinda blogging about the trip.

There are still a ton of pictures to look thru before I start posting but I did want to hare this one...

Every time I open up my pictures I go back to this one - it makes me smile, I love it!  It's not the best photograph ever.  The kids aren't looking their best and some aren't even looking at the camera.  Luke is blurry.  But for me this picture captures the perfectness of the day we went to see the ruins.

In photography you are often told not to shoot into the sun but I happen to like it.  I love the sun in this photo.  You get a better feel for how the sun was beating down on  us.  It was hot this day thanks to the sun and so I am glad I captured "mister sun, sun, mister golden sun" (any Barney fans?  Is Barney even still on?) because he was a big part of the day.

I love that the kids aren't looking their best.  We were dressed scuzzy, we were sweating pigs, we were hot and tired but man, we were having fun exploring.  The fact that some of the kids aren't even looking helps me to remember that there was so much to look at it and learn - every ones attention would be focused on a different pyramid, hieroglyph, historical marker, bug, etc. and we would all want to tell the others about what we found.

Luke's blurriness is jut proof that the kid is in motion a lot.  He would run up and down the ruins exploring tunnels and little hiding places. He just went and went. He nearly flew up the big pyramid we climbed (pictures coming) The only thing that slowed him down there was his mother (who was completely freaked out watching her 6 year old climb stairs built in 800 AD that were now crumbling ) telling him to slow down.

So this picture for me is everything I loved about this particular day that we spent exploring Coba and Tulum.  I am so grateful that we were able to take this family trip!