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| Nohoch Mul, Coba, Mexico |
This post takes us to our final days of our holiday. Approximately one hour travel from Playa Del Carmen is the Mayan Ruins of Coba. In addition to the ruins there is a small town and the Lake of Coba. In a previous trip I had been to Chichen Itza so we decided to the less touristy Coba. Again, if you want the full history of Coba I would recommend
visiting this online history. As it was about 32 degrees celcius and 100% humidity it took some getting used to the conditions. There are 3 ways to see the ruins of Coba. Walk - approximately 2.5 km round trip and would take a couple of hours based on seeing everything. Bicycles can be rented. The third option is a human powered tricycle operated by one of the friendly Mayan men who earn their living by providing transportation around Coba. We opted for the nice Mayan man for 100 pesos (we tipped him another 50 when we were done, really nice man) - primarily because our feet were in poor shape due to being immersed in water and sandals due to the storm - blisters. We were quite tired by this point in the tour and as our tour guide had already proved he wasn't the best - we ditched our tour and rode around by ourselves. This is also the quietest option - at the second area we were the only ones there! Most of Coba is still buried under the jungle, unlike Chichen Itza which is very fully excavated. You may also walk to the top of the largest pyramid, Nohoch Mul if you wish. Based on our timeline and heat, we chose not to. There are still many treasures to be discovered on future archeology expeditions.
We saw a few geckos and lizards - and the nice Mayan man pedaling the tricycle was quick to point out two poisonous snakes that ran in front of our path. That made me even happier that we had not chosen to walk, something we would have done if it had been cooler and our feet had been in better shape.
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| Orange Orioles |
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| Yellow-bellied Flycatcher sitting on nest |
For anyone who ever takes a tour versus doing it on your own - it makes for a very long day. We were happy to be delivered back to our hotel after 10 hours. After speaking with our hotel concierge he advised that the Sea had quieted enough to consider traveling to Akumal Bay to swim with the sea turtles. You can do it on your own but in order to go to the roped off areas you must hire a sea turtle guide who ensures that you behave properly (*absolutely no touching them ever!). In the span of about an hour we saw 8-10 sea turtles of all sizes, one coming close to the size of a VW Bug roof! It was amazing and something I really enjoyed. We only got a few pictures however as our cheap underwater camera died within 15 minutes, a victim I am afraid of going to deep with it. It was rated to go up to 12 feet deep but likely was not meant for the type of shots we were taking. We love taking pictures and living by the ocean are strongly considering the best underwater camera on the market which is the Canon Powershot D30. It takes both video and stills and is mostly used for divers but also for people like us who kayak, snorkel and end up at the beach all the time where I normally hesitate to take my good Canon Rebel T3i.
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| Green Sea Turtle feeding |
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| Green Sea Turtle |
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| Green Sea Turtle Surfacing for Air |
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| Strange looking humans - wait - that's us! |
That was the end of our Mexican holiday and now that we have been home two weeks life is back to normal. Buddy was extremely happy to see us, I believe he wasn't certain he was ever coming home (poor dog). He did have a great time at his sitters though, spending time with his dog mom and dad, and even got to play with his litter-mate brother. Our dog sitter emailed videos of him to us while we were away but I was shocked at how much we both missed him.
We have extremely hot dry conditions here and as of yesterday we are no longer allowed to water our lawns - Vancouver Island is on total fire bans and lake and stream fishing is no longer permitted due to low water levels. We are allowed to water trees, shrubs, gardens and flowers only in the evenings. To get away from the heat we walked the beach at low tide with Buddy today - there was a breeze so it was a very nice day to do it. Tonight due to high tide they are proceeding with a fireworks celebration (they shoot them into the ocean off a barge) for the 100th Birthday of the town of Courtenay. It seems like they should have done it on Canada Day July first but due to the tide today is the day with zero fire risk so we have plans with Mom to meet up and go watch them. Happy 4th of July to all my American readers and to everyone else, have a great weekend!
We have never tried swimming with the turtle at Akumal. We were going to stay there overnight one time but we had Whiskey with us at the time and it was too hot to leave her and she was not allow in the park. Maybe next time we are in that area we will do it, it looks like an incredible experience.
ReplyDeleteSo glad that Buddy was happy to see you again and that you are all together again. It's really dry here too but we are watering constantly so it looks pretty green compared to much of the surrounding area. The farmers really need some rain.
www.travelwithkevinandruth.com
We can no longer water our grass as are in the highest water restriction but are allowed to water trees, shrubs, gardens and flowers. Everything is turning brown :(
DeleteI would say that overall you had a fabulous vacation despite the water issues the first few days. So glad that Buddy was happy so see you and more that ready to leave his dog family behind.
ReplyDeleteIt was a good vacation and it was extremely good to see Buddy. He has had a few separation issues since we got back though. Hopefully those will go away.
DeleteYou live such an adventure. I would love to snorkel with turtles but I may have flipped out a bit over their size.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your trip, I enjoyed it. ;p
Those turtles were so gentle. I had a hard time steering clear of them though as they often would just swim right under you to get to the bit of sea grass they wanted to eat.
Deletelovely to be so close up to all that gorgeous wildlife. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very neat experience.
DeleteI would have loved to swim with the turtles; that seems like an awesome experience.
ReplyDeleteIt was incredible and they didn't seem too concerned about us at all. That bay is entirely open to the ocean, there is nothing keeping them there except the see grass that they like to eat.
DeleteThose turtles are gorgeous, I'd love to see them up close! x
ReplyDeleteThey were amazing and some were so large. It was a very cool experience.
DeleteSwimming with turtles= Good
ReplyDeleteSwimming with sharks=bad
Shark week on tv....Sharks on my mind hahah...Looks like a fantastic vacation!
So funny. Yes, too much shark week. I've only seen one small sand shark in British Columbia but none when snorkeling.
DeleteI usually hire a taxi just outside the port area for up to 4 hours and then I can choose when and where we stop and get out. I've always had good luck, but this last port in the Bahamas I did a walking tour and although I didn't get far, I saw so many interesting things, I plan to do that more often.
ReplyDeleteI love walking tours - fun sometimes just to get lost!
DeleteA long time ago (and with a former husband) I went to Baja on a camping trip. We had an inflatable boat so we could go out on the water. We also had our snorkel gear and scuba tanks for limited diving. Two memorable events occurred. One was seeing a large sea turtle rise up out of the water behind the boat. It took quite some time for my mind to register what it was. It looked like a skinny, green scuba diver's head at first. Then the image of the turtle's head materialized. The other was diving and coming across a huge manta ray gliding on the bottom with its wide mouth open to catch its food. - Margy
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