We then went to the little village of Coba, the current village is much smaller than the Mayan city of 55,000 that is being gradually excavated from the jungle overgrowth. The little hotel where we stayed was not only a hotel, but also the bus station, grocery store, restaurant, and tourist trinket store. Few tourists stay here, most take the bus in from Cancun or Tulum Pueblo (the village a few kilometers inland from the beach that is swelling with backpacker circuit traffic).
Our fowl neighbors. There was an overabundance of roosters, who felt the need to serenade us at all hours of the day and night.
The road from the village to the ruins
You can visit the crocodile, separated by only a few strings of twine
The ancient ball court, the losing team was routinely decapitated
Is it poisonous?
Trees growing out of the ruins
The great pyramid at Coba, at 12 stories, it is the highest one in the Yucatan
You can climb to the top of the pyramid, a very risky foray!
The view from the top
This tourist woman saw some village children and asked them if she could take their picture. They said OK, and then shouted "Dinero, dinero, 50 pesos" (about $5). She gave them a few pesos. These kids live on the main drag to the ruins and seem to be quite accommodated to tourists walking by. Few tourists walk on the dirt roads off the main (paved) road in the village, the children I saw on these roads seemed less spoiled, as they were exited to just see me walking past the little cabanas where they lived.