[Composed 11/29/2024]
If yesterday was about operating in
VIP
Mode,
today is strictly DIY. We started the day visiting another
Mayan archaeological site: Coba
Coba provides a nice contrast to
Chichen-Itza:
it's more spread out, situated in the jungle versus an open area and
is generally less polished. This all makes Coba less popular, and
therefore, less crowded and chaotic. When we first arrived, we felt
like we had the entire site to ourselves.
While you can hire an official guide, we opted to go the digital
route by purchasing the Coba
Ruins Cancun Mexico Tour Android App.
The app consists of a map with 19 stops or points of interest (POI). At
each POI, the app gives a brief audio description of
either the surroundings or background information on the
Maya. The app allowed
us to move at our own pace and be fully independent. The information
in the app is high quality and seems well researched.
Take stop 14, for example, which describes the
Mayan view of heaven and hell:
The Mayans were and are - a religious bunch. They believed that when
someone died, their soul went directly to a place called Xibalba, a
scary underworld. In Xibalba, there were tons of terrifying beings
and creatures, such as the Flying Scab, Bloody Claw, or Bloody
Teeth, as well as a river of blood and pus.
...
There were only a couple of ways to go directly from earth to
Tamoanchan while skipping Xibalba: you had to be sacrificed, die
giving birth, be killed during war, or die while playing the ball
game Pok-a- Tok. No wonder the Mayans were cavalier when it came to
human sacrifice-after all, all sacrifices went directly to heaven!
In a few paragraphs of explanation the app reframed human
sacrifice from a gory punishment to something far more sacred. That
kind of insight would be impressive from any source, and even more
so from a few dollar Android app.
So yes, the app did an admirable job. And yet, if we had it to do
again we'd almost certainly hire a guide. What the app
provides in quality, it lacks in quantity. There are just so many
structures and details within those structures that as informative
as the app is, it leaves many questions unanswered. What I missed
most out of the app was the ability to point to
some random curiosity and ask: hey, what's that?
I suppose the best option would be to hire a guide, and then
listen to the digital tour afterwards, trying to get the best of
both worlds.
Until recently you could climb Nohoch Mul, the main pyramid at the site
(here's an account of someone doing this in
2017). During
our visit, they were doing construction at the base of Nohoch Mul,
so not only was climbing out, but the base was roped off.
My guess is that the
days of climbing the big pyramid are gone. Given my fear of heights
and appreciation for this fragile site, I'm on board with
this change.
With that said, a number of structures throughout Coba do allow for
tourists to climb on them. The first large temple we saw, for
example, allowed you to ascend a few levels.
There's something profound about walking on the same steps that
another individual tread over 1,000 years ago. I'm guessing one day
all the ruins will be roped off, but until then, the ability to get
up close and personal to the ruins is a notable feature of Coba.
It wasn't lost on me that workers at Nohoch Mul were using hand
tools to shape stones they were installing at the site. 1000 years
may have passed, but Mayans are still doing stone work at Coba.
Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and while we didn't have a chance to eat
our traditional Thanksgiving meal (hot dogs, of course), we did have a
Thanksgiving moment today. While exploring Coba's first group of
structures we caught sight of turkey. Except, by our standards,
this was no ordinary turkey: it was an
Ocellated
Turkey. His iridescent plumage made him look
like a magical version of our typical gobbler.
Shira, with an assist by the tour guide app, was responsible for
navigating Coba. And so when she announced that we'd seen all the buildings
I was initially disappointed. Google Maps clearly shows that there's
an observatory (Observatorio Astronómico de Cobá); why hadn't
our app talked about this structure?
The answer underscores just how much misinformation exists about
Coba. Consider what Chat GPT has to say about the Observatorio
Astronómico:
The Observatorio Astronómico de Cobá, or the "Astronomical
Observatory of Cobá," also referred to as the "Round Temple" or
"Structure 10," is an iconic circular structure at the ancient Mayan
site of Cobá in Mexico. While its precise role remains debated among
archaeologists, its design and location suggest it had significant
astronomical, ceremonial, and possibly administrative
purposes.
We did, however, visit Xaibé, a building that our audio tour
explained served as a watch tower situated at a set of key road intersections. ChatGPT
explains
Xaibé, located within the ancient Maya site of Cobá in Mexico,
played an important role as a key ceremonial and possibly
administrative structure. The word "Xaibé" translates to
"crossroads" or "place of convergence" in Mayan, which aligns with
its location at the intersection of key sacbeob (ancient raised
stone causeways) that connected Cobá to other parts of the city and
surrounding settlements.
Turns out, both of these descriptions refer to the same
physical structure. Our app hadn't mentioned anything about an
observatory, because from its perspective, one doesn't exist.
The fact that you can get ChatGPT to cough up different explanations
for the same location by changing the name
isn't just a ChatGPT quirk. It highlights that
enough misinformation of the web exists, that from Google Maps and
ChatGPT's perspective, it's common knowledge that there's an observatory at Coba.
Harvard's Peabody Museum hosts a detailed
history of Coba's excavation. Nowhere does it mention an observatory. This
site
clears up the mystery a bit: "This structure ([Xaibé]) has been erroneously termed an
observatory." So yeah, any facts about Coba need to be consumed
with care.
After Coba we planned to head to Punta
Laguna for hiking and hopefully monkey spotting. But before we
did, we needed the a bit of recovery time: a bathroom break,
lunch, etc. In hindsight, the time spent around Coba's
nondescript entrance turned out to be among the
day's highlights.
It started with the bathroom break: we found ourselves with access to clean
restrooms, something never to take for granted. I then wandered into
a nearby gift shop, where a conversation about honey
ended with a tequila and xtabentún
tasting. Did I need to buy an absurdly priced bottle of the green,
anise and honey flavored Mayan liquor? No. But, the salesman was
just too good. The time
spent kibbitzing with the shop owner meant that when we wandered to our car, we heard a rustling
in the trees above. To our sheer delight, looking up, we saw a small
troop of monkeys.

After taking countless pics of the furry cuteness above, we headed
back to our car. I stopped to gawk at one more oddity: a large tree
laying on its side. Instead of being
dead, one of its branches had become a new trunk and was now thriving. A couple of the local guides noticed me pondering the
tree. One explained that perhaps 10 years ago, he'd come to work
after a hurricane and found the tree had blown over.
The scene before us was a vivid depiction of
resilience: out of an impossible situation, the tree simply found a
new way to grow.




From Coba's parking lot, we drove a short distance to a Mayan
restaurant. While Shira navigated the menu, I wandered to the marshy
green
space next door, where I was captivated by a couple of
Northern
Jacanas and some colorful dragonflies. When I returned, Shira
had ordered. Lunch appeared minutes later and was
excellent. It wasn't just that the food was good (it was!), it was
that the whole experience just clicked. The open air
restaurant, the colorful tablecloths and decor,
the perfect breezy weather, the bright colors
on our plate, the excellent flavors. It was a sort of pristine
sensory experience that restaurants in the states
strive for, and this random lunch spot, arguably in the middle of
nowhere, effortless nailed.
After lunch we made our way to Punta Laguna. It was this
article
that planted the seed of visiting this park. I wanted to get
some time hiking in the 'real' jungle, and unlike many of the touristy
experiences around Playa De Carmen, Punta Laguna checked this box.
As we drove to Punta Laguna via QROO
109, something our guide said the day before came back to
us. At one point, he remarked that he planned to take us on a longer
route in order to avoid a so called
'dangerous road.' We were fairly certainly that this was exactly the
road he'd had us bypass. The problem with route 109 was that it
contained randomly placed, massive potholes. It was driving in a
video game: the road would be smooth and picturesque, and then
seemingly out of nowhere, obstacles that required careful
maneuvering appeared. Shira did an admirable job weaving
between the potholes, and we made it to Punta Laguna
without incident.
At Punta Laguna we found ourselves once again with the opportunity
to hire a local guide. This time we didn't hesitate, and we were
assigned a young man who's basic English was apparently the best out
of all those guides available. He had a single goal: get us to
see as many monkeys as possible.
While we were clearly in a wilderness park, our first spotting came
by walking down an access road. It was great to see monkeys,
but this wasn't quite the jungle experience I was hoping for.
After ticking off that first troop, we backtracked a
bit and headed into the jungle proper. Now we were talking!
Our guide navigated us along a network of trails, constantly on the
lookout for signs up of monkeys. The trails were well
established and it felt great to be doing a bit of old school
hiking. Though, having no map and seeing no indication of blazes, we
absolutely needed the guide.
We saw a couple of impressive butterflies, a hard working colony of
leafcutter ants and a number of gorgeous flowering plants. But it
was the monkeys that stole the show. Craning our necks, we found half
a dozen different troops as we followed the guide. They were
noshing on the leaves, swinging from branch to branch and
otherwise just hanging out. Nearly as impressive as the monkeys
themselves was our guide's ability to communicate with them. He had
a handful of different calls he could make, each demonstrating that
he had years of experience roaming the preserve.
From Punta Laguna we made our way back to our hotel. In the main
reception area, we approached the concierge to figure out dinner
plans. This morning, before we left for Coba, Shira had a lengthy
discussion with the concierge on duty about our dinner plans.
The Mayakoba resort we were
staying at had a number of dining options available; many of them
striving to be luxurious. As Shira browsed the
stack of menus and
chatted about availability, she wasn't really
finding a home run. Given our Kosher / Vegetarian dietary
restrictions, many of the extravagant options just seemed
like overkill.
What about Ember,
Shira asked? Ember is the Mayakoba's Kosher dining option. Was that
an option? The concierge promised to look into the possibility and
text us if he could get us a reservation. By the time we got back
from our day of travels, we hadn't heard anything. We assumed Ember
was booked up or otherwise unavailable. Still, we didn't think it
would hurt to check for sure.
The concierge picked up the phone and called over to
Ember. After a few moments of chatting he asked if we wanted a
reservation for 15 minutes from now? While promising, that was a bit
too early for us, as we needed time to clean up from our day's
adventures. After further negotiation, they were able to fit us in
for a reservation at 7pm.
We hurried back to our room, cleaned up and then walked from our
location at the Fairmont to the extravagant lobby at the Banyan
Tree. The hotel would have been gladly driven us, but we
savored the evening walk. The grounds of the resort are meticulously
cared for, so strolling along the paths is a worthwhile activity in
itself.
It was appropriate that we should eat at Ember, as it's one of the
reasons that inspired us to visit the Riviera Maya in the first
place. While introducing ourselves to Courtney, our
travel advisor, we mentioned that we keep kosher. She responded
by mentioning that near Cancun, there was a five star resort that
had kosher dining. That comment stuck with us, and when other plans we
had didn't gel we considered Mexico. Admittedly, Shira was
more interested in the '5 star' part of the comment, and ultimately
it was the history, ruins and convenience of the area that pulled
us in. But, Ember, that 5 star kosher dining option is what sparked
the idea in the first place.
We checked the signs at the Banyan tree, but could find no mention
of Ember. We asked various staff and was given direction, until we
were directed to a quiet meeting room that was set up as a dining
room. Ahhh, this made sense: Ember wasn't in a fixed space. If they
had a large group, they could move the 'restaurant' to a large
space, if they had fewer reservations they could use one of their
smaller multi-purpose rooms.
We were quickly seated and a waiter started bringing us our first
course. As we chatted with him, he explained that tonight we were
the only guests dining at Ember. The phone call
from the concierge was to fit us in; it had opened up the entire
restaurant for us at the last minute. Now that's impressive
customer service.
Shira and I then went on to enjoy a private 5 star, Kosher meal,
with a personal waiter standing by to serve us. It simply could not
have been more surreal. The sea bass, onion soup and stewed beef were all
excellent. We left Ember stuffed and feeling like we'd had a one of
a kind experience.
After two full days of traversing the countryside, we were excited
about the plans for tomorrow: to chill at the beach and resort. Let
the lounging begin!