Coba

So here I am at the archaeological site of Coba. Coba is located in the northeast of the Yucatan peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, about an hour away from Valladolid (where the program was based). Coba is an enormous site! It surged into being the dominant city in its region, along with Chichen Itza, of the Yucatan peninsula during the Terminal Classic (from the late 9th century onwards). Coba was Uxmal's (another site located on the other side of the peninsula, about 137 miles from Coba) contemporary, counterpart site in the peninsula. During the Classic period (250-900 CE), Coba follows the general pattern of other Maya sites of this time period (they seemed to all have a close relationship with sites in the Peten region). At the end of the Classic, Coba asserted itself as the regional capital. Coba was a set of neighborhoods sprawled around a cluster of lakes. Coba has several clusters of civic-ceremonial architecture, and we were only able to see a few of these. I wanted to include a few pictures of Kati and Maggie because they were my Coba buddies. After our brief tour (given mostly in Maaya), Kati, Maggie and I rented bikes (for 35 pesos) in order to cruise around this enormous site (I have never had to ride a bike around an archaeological site before!!). It was a lot of fun and Kati had been here before so she gave us the little tour (including a stop at this stela that supposedly has some glyphs relating to 2012). Coba's area by the Terminal Classic covered 70 sq. kilometers (about 28 miles) with about 20,000 structures and a population around 55,000. Anyways, it was an incredibly hot and humid day, but I liked Coba and found it to be quite impressive.

I wanted to include a few pictures from around the site of Coba because it's such an enormous place! We were only able to see and experience a small fraction of the site because of time constraints. But I've included here pictures of a small tunnel that we traversed, one of the ballcourts, and a picture of one of the most picturesque buildings that I've ever seen at an archaeological site in Mexico. Despite the extreme heat and humidity, I did enjoy Coba (I usually do enjoy visiting these 'ancient' archaeological sites).

Here are a few pictures of me starting to climb the largest pyramid at Coba, called the Imoja temple. It is rather large (79ft), but it isn't the largest that I've ever climbed. Kati was nice enough to take a few of these pictures of me. The day was just so hot and humid! It made it extremely difficult to enjoy the site (and sights!).

We had to hurry (because of the small amount of time we were given to explore the site on our own) to get to the largest pyramid at Coba. It was an intense climb, but I always try to ascend these pyramids as quickly as I can. Going down is another story! I, of course, was completely drenched in my own sweat from the very beginning of the day as we left Casa Quetzal in Valladolid. As we stepped onto the archaeological site of Coba, all of us were already sweating profusely. Needless to say (or write), Yucatan is not my favorite place in Mexico because of its nasty humidity and heat combo. Anyways, as we got to the top, we looked at the tiny structure with a diving god in the center of it. The diving god still has some (supposedly) original paint on his legs. I then turned around and was able to see for miles in all directions. It was quite a sight.

The very last thing we did was go down into the cenotes right outside of the archaeological site of Coba. Here are pictures of Stephanie (with the kids) who was the program coordinator in Yucatan. It was potentially a treacherous descent into this particular cenote as you can see from the picture. The stairs were completely wet and extremely slippery, but luckily we all made it down safely. It was kind of eerie to descend into the earth's depths (it really wasn't too far down underground), and only a few people actually got into the water. I had to include a picture of Rosi, Tiana and me as we sat by the water's edge down in the cenote. It was an interesting way to end our day at Coba.

Isla Mujeres

A group of us decided to spend our "long" weekend (Friday-Sunday) at Isla Mujeres. I agreed to go, but I was a little anxious to be around so many tourists!! There were things that I liked about our visit to Isla Mujeres, but the overall experience did not instill in me the desire to go again. However, the beach was beautiful, and the water was so refreshing; not too cold and not too warm. We stayed at a hostel and it was my very first (and hopefully last) experience at one. There is absolutely no privacy at a hostel!! There were only two things that I liked about the hostel: this cat that accompanied me to the bathroom in the mornings, and the flowers that were right outside our room (the room had three sets of bunkbeds, no air conditioning and no windows! there were screens instead of windows and it seemed like all the bugs on Isla Mujeres came to our screens to die! hahahaha, part of the experience I guess). I did have a relaxing weekend, despite the cacophony of noises until 3am at the hostel, because we spent all day at the beach, resting and swimming. But I don't think I'll ever go back to Isla Mujeres. Been there, done that.

It was really hot and kind of humid during the day, but at night, it was absolutely beautiful! There was a slight breeze on the beach and we were all excited to be on Isla Mujeres! The weekend that we were there (July 15-17) was the famous whale shark weekend. There was a big festival that celebrated the whale sharks that come swimming by Isla Mujeres. They are the largest fish of the ocean and are docile, peaceful creatures. I had the opportunity to swim with them but it was so expensive! Plus, I heard that there were a lot of people swimming around the whale sharks so I'm glad that I didn't do it. I've included a picture of our weekend crew: me, Maggie, Kati, John, Andy, and Abby (another level one student who became my good friend!). I'm the only one who opted not to buy and wear the whale shark hat that this little 10yr old kid had made and was selling. But I did have a fun time regardless!

The six of us broke up into two groups during the day on Saturday; Abby and Andy went swimming with the whale sharks while Kati, Maggie, John and I rented a golf cart and cruised around the tiny island. Kati is my friend from the art history department at FSU; she's the only other Mayanist/Mesoamericanist studying with Dr. Carrasco (well, until this fall semester! we're getting two new PhD students who will be studying Ancient Mesoamerica as well). Kati is on the left, Maggie is on the right. We stopped at this private beach club which was just preparing to open; we saw the view from their beach so we decided to stop and take a few pictures. This guy Antonio who works there immediately approached us and told us that we could take some pictures. It was a beautiful private beach as you can see!

As we were driving around the very tiny island, we stopped and enjoyed the vista of the ocean. The water is amazing! It really is quite a beautiful place. I've included a picture of Ix Chel, the Maya moon goddess (also midwifery- the sign at this place says that if a woman wants to get pregnant, she only needs to touch the statue! so if a woman doesn't want to get pregnant, she shouldn't touch the statue! hahaha). Anyways, when we stopped at this mirador, across the street there was a cute little family selling "coco frio" which is, of course, coconuts that are split open by the guy, and then his wife gives you a straw and voila! Ice cold coconut juice straight from the coconut! It was pretty good and really cheap, and afterwards, the man cut out the "meat" of the coconut and cut it up into pieces so that we could have a second treat and enjoy all of the coconut. It was delicious. I have also included a picture of me and Maggie; I stayed at her house in North Carolina with her husband, Austin. Then when our level went to Mexico, I got to meet Maggie and we got along so well! She's really funny and we loved riding around the island in our golf cart, singing and having fun!

I had to say goodbye to Isla Mujeres (which wasn't too hard for me! hahaha). Both Saturday and Sunday morning when I went to take a shower, this cat would follow me into the bathrooms! He was so sweet and it seemed like he was waiting for me both mornings. Even though I didn't really enjoy being in the biggest tourist spot that I have ever been to in Mexico, I do have to say that the water was beautiful and it was a relatively relaxing weekend all things considered!