Coba & Chichen Itza

Arrived in Coba.






This $11/night gem is memorable indeed!
It even comes with little Scorpions in the bed and a bathroom that hasn't been cleaned in decades.
It also doubles as a sweat lodge (it's a WET sleeping experience) as you can't open the net-less "windows"
(It's 35 degrees outside, 45 inside) for ventilation because of hordes of mosquitos streaming in. Sweet!


Beavis & ButtHead would really dig this place !










Going to the ruins.
One has to walk quite far in extreme heat to get to them.






Isso e o campo de jogo de pelota.




A equipe que perdeu o jogo também perderam a cabeça.
Cruz credo !


THE GAME !
They often played with human heads instead of balls.
The head had to be kicked or thrown through the hoop up there,
a bit like Rugby mixed with basketBall. Cool ey.
The losing team lose their heads.
Ay The good ol days...




The Maya stone work is inferior to what I witnessed in Peru by the Incas but the scale is impressive,
especially the "sacbeobs", hundreds of kms of stone roads !?!
Coba is older than other Yucatan sites and it is more
connected to distant Tikal in Guatemala as well.












The view from the top of 42m high "Nohoch Mul",
"the Great Pyramid", the highest in the Yucatan.


I say again, Deja-vu Ankor Wat, 1000 year old Temples poking through a green pancake.




There's a Diving God Temple on the top of the Pyramid.

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Going through Valladolid, a relaxed City in Northern Yucatan.

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This is Piste, the town next to the Chichen Itza ruins.
This is where you stay the night unless you are on a package day tour from Cancun.


The Great pyramid of Kukulcan (Quetzalcoatl) at night.




With the Full Moon among the clouds making for an ethereal scene.


And during the day.
This blood soaked Temple is the most famous one in the Yucatan, VERY crowded.
The atmosphere at Chichen Itza has little in common with other sites in MesoAmerica.




















Kukulcan everywhere.
































The AstroDome.








Chichen Itza is also a magnet of sorts for all kinds of New Agers and end-of-the-Worlders.


Making it through the Crap-seller gauntlet.

This must be the only attraction in the World where One has to pay twice to get in ! And judging by the volumes of package tourists that clog this place they must be making over a million dollars a day but they can't afford to put up a sign or two about where you are heading while walking around, not even a simple pamphlet map is provided...(same problem in Coba & Tikal). Not only do you have to pay twice to get in but once you are in you would think that you would be able to enjoy the site in peace, but no, you have to run a gauntlet of crap sellers who like a third world caricature quip "one dollar for you Amigo" every 10 seconds, irritating to the point that you cannot concentrate on the ruins and the fabulous cultural heritage of these idiots. Just goes to prove, once again, that Latin American tourist areas exist for one purpose only, to overcharge the foreigners (as much as possible, every step of the way) who naively came to "appreciate" their culture.