Even though our condo is only 10 minutes from the Tulum Ruins, our first ruin excursion was today, on June 21st, to Coba.  It’s about a 45 minute drive northwest of Tulum, and to be honest we decided to go today because of the weather forecast.  It has been quite overcast since we arrived, but I believe that is a BLESSING considering the overwhelming heat back home in the west.  Very grateful to BE HERE NOW.

We wanted to be at the entrance to the ruins exactly when they opened at 8:00 am to beat the crowds, but even 8:30 was early enough.  We decided to rent a bike instead of walking or doing the “Mayan Uber” (bike taxi).  However, choosing the bike was not a slam dunk for me since the LAST time I was on a bike was when I fell off of the Haleakala Volcano THREE TIMES while descending the volcano on a bike tour in the mid-90’s. Weird that I don’t remember the real date, but I DO REMEMBER believing I was going to die.  Anyway, I haven’t been on a bike since,  BUT I DID GET ON ONE TODAY for the first time in 20+ years!

And check out the LACK of tourists around us …. ALWAYS SMART to show up at these places when they first open.  And because it was overcast (yet not raining), the air temp was DIVINE (especially when moving on the bike).  When we did stop to take photos of the ruins, the mosquitoes would bite.  THANKFUL to have my Terra Shield mix from do-Terra.  It DOES work (no Deet!).  Just some views from our travels through the jungle.

It was so special, the number of sites where we dismounted our bikes to view the various ruins and found VERY FEW PEOPLE.  Even when we got to the MAIN Coba Pyramid, which is everyone’s reason for coming here, even that was very quiet when we arrived…

Just look at that partial view of the jungle behind us.  We were told only 2 – 5% of all of the ruins have been excavated.  Some of the mounds in the distance are actually pyramids that have not been excavated.  And if we were to look at this very pyramid from the opposite side, it would just look like another mound in the jungle because they only excavated this one side.  THAT BLOWS MY MIND as there is just SO MUCH WE DON’T KNOW (right Marty?  I KNOW NOTHING).

And by the time we got to the top, the START of the tour bus masses began to arrive.  We should have taken a later picture, BUT WHY?

Descending was a challenge, but we got ‘er done.  The rope down the middle was a huge help, and with every step I silently affirmed “we are safe”.  Thank you God, it worked.

So we rode our bikes back through the jungle about 3 miles, and just HAD to reward ourselves with a little splash before we headed back to our beach place.

Tomorrow … God Willing …. Chichen Itza.  It’s about a 2.5 hour drive so us early Freebirds will be up at 4:00 am to catch the early pre-tourist worm again.  We loved the freedom of riding our bikes today and just taking it all in.  Tomorrow, we want to ride a bike again but with a tour guide so we will have a better understanding of the history of the Mayan.

Carpe Momento.