Semana Santa: Day 2

Today Octavio & I went on a little adventure.  We took the bus to some nearby ruins, Coba.  We were too cheap to spend the $50 on a guide for just the two of us so we wandered through on our own and pieced together the information from signs and snippets overheard from other people's guides.  We also opted out of renting bikes which turned out to be a mistake.  We didn't realize how big and spread apart the ruins were and ended up spending two ours trekking around the forest in the hot sun.  Needless to say, we were pooped when we finally reached the end!

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!

the bus stop by Coba, the ruins.

on the way to the ruins

before our hike through the ruins when we were still fresh & clean

the beginning

A mayan priest did something in here, according to the guide who was leaving as we entered.

shortly after this picture was taken I bumped my head.  I am clearly not Mayan sized.

neither is Octavio.  

inside part of the ruins.

where we foolishly passed up renting bikes.

one of the very long walks to a different part of the ruins.

they had the right idea!

I thought this looked like an area for picnics.  Octavio thought it looked like an area for sacrifices.  Little bit different ideas...

note my bright pink shins.

juego de pelota (ball game).  The winner is sacrificed.  It was a huge honor.  I think I would have thrown the game and lost, I'm more into living than honor.  Then again, I probably wouldn't have had to worry, I've never been the most athletic, I probably wouldn't have stood a chance of winning anyway!

A skull in the middle of the juego de pelota area.  Really gets the point of the game across huh?

etchings.

Another long walk. 

the biggest part of the ruins.

Octavio's grandma read my tarot cards before we left and highly warned me against doing anything risky because apparently my cards had a lot of danger present.  I went ahead & risked it.

halfway up.  Octavio decided this point was enough for him and headed back down to play photographer.

I played it safe (I saw the tarot card with all the daggers on it after all!) and half walked, half crawled up the pyramid.  You can see my crouched position here.

Taking a break at the top to catch my breath & enjoy the view.

birds eye view of the ruins.

View from the top. 

Can you spot Octavio down there?

Who's good at Where's Waldo?  Can you spot me scooting down on my butt?

Octavio gave it another go.

He hates heights so this was good enough for him.

Getting a good look at what I had just climbed.

After the climb in front of the pyramid.

more ruins.

we were greeted by this cute little towel turtle!  Too bad we quickly ruined him, a shower was a definite must after all that walking!