DAY 13: All Roads Lead to COBÁ!

On the 13th day of our road trip, we spent the morning making a follow-up visit to the Mayan ruins at Tulum. (See my previous post: Mexican Road Trip: Cancun, Tulum, and the Riviera Maya). As for the afternoon, our plan called for a visit to Cobá, a large Mayan site just 30 miles away to the northwest. Known as the City of the White Roads, Cobá is the fifth most popular Mayan ruin in Mexico, at least in terms of visitor numbers–although I was fairly sure that had more to do with the proximity to Cancun than it did with the quality of the architecture. 

Street View of Hotel Maison Tulum; The route from Tulum to Cobá. Transit Policemen on motorcycles, rolled up beside us at a stop sign.

The ruins of Cobá: Park Entrance and Google Map

The first thing we saw when we walked in was a bicycle rental concession, along with a fleet of pedicabs, all staged near the entrance, and doing a booming business. We rather quickly found out why. In it’s day, Cobá was one of the largest of all Mayan cities, with a population estimated to have been more than 50,000 people, spread out over several square miles. Unlike the other sites we’d visited, there wasn’t one central area where all the most interesting structures were clustered. The attractions at Cobá were spread out, just like the original old city had been, so there were actually four different groups of ancient buildings, separated by as much as two miles! On the plus side, the old Mayan roads, the sacbeob, still connected the various sections, and portions of them are kept in good enough shape to use as bike paths.

Many of the people we saw returning their bikes after finishing their tour looked like they’d just run a triathlon, puffing and panting, dripping sweat, and red in the face–which was hardly an endorsement of the experience. October in the tropics can still be quite warm. With all the rain, the day was humid to the point of stifling, and the path was lined by thick jungle growth that blocked off any hope of a breeze. Honestly? Mike and I didn’t even ask about the bicycle rentals. We went straight to the Pedicab stand, and sat ourselves down in the first available. Our designated pedaler was a young guy named Francisco, who was clearly in better shape than either of us old gringos. He offered us a two hour circuit of the ruins for 200 Pesos (a little over $10). Sounded downright cheap to me, so off we went!

Cobá is so spread out, most visitors rent bicycles; me and Mike chose the Pedicab option; (hence, Mike’s toothsome smile).

Ball Court #1, flanked by a platform with stone steps. The game was a merger of sport, politics, and religion. In some contests, the losing team was sacrificed to the gods!

Cobá was quite a big deal back in its heyday, from 600 AD to about 1000 AD. Being the largest city in the area gave them the resources to dominate their neighbors, and that’s exactly what they did. They demanded tribute from all the lesser Lords, and secured their privileged position by forging close alliances with their most powerful rivals, the kings of Tikal, Dzibanche, and Calakmul. It’s quite probable that they secured those ties through intermarriage of the noble houses. Based on inscriptions found on many of the stelae at the site, a great many of the rulers of Cobá are thought to have been women. It’s important to note that even though major new construction ceased after 900 AD, Cobá was not abandoned at that time.  The city remained occupied, and the original structures were still being maintained well into the 14th century, almost up to the time of the Spanish Conquest. When Chichén Itzá started its rise to prominence, Cobá was already beginning its slow decline, yet it remained a force in competition with the mighty Itzá for at least a century.

Cobá was a religious center, with the largest, finest pyramids and temples in the area, and it was also at the center of a thriving trade network. The Maya never quite developed the wheel, and they had no draft animals, so everything that required transport had to be carried on the backs of humans. The sacbeob, the White Roads, were raised pathways that spread out from Cobá’s ceremonial and administrative centers like a web. The name came from the layer of crushed white stone spread along the path to reflect moonlight, making it easier for the bearers to move their loads in the cool of the night. Within the city, the sacbeob connected hundreds of residential clusters, each cluster consisting of fifteen houses built atop a raised platform. Outside the city, the White Roads extended for as much as 100 km, connecting the many smaller Mayan cities and towns that traded with Cobá, and owed fealty to the kuhul ajaw, their divine ruler.

The thought that we were rolling along those original sacbeob was very cool; there were more of them in evidence here than at any other site in the Mayan world. The crushed white stone that once defined the pathways is long gone, but since the park closes at 5:00, the only people who might benefit from reflected moonlight are people who–let’s face it–shouldn’t be out there in the first place.  

We pedaled along for 20 minutes or so, then got out and walked to the next major grouping of structures, centered around a squat, truncated pyramid topped by a blocky temple. This was the “Pyramid of the Painted Lintel,”  so called because of the stones above the temple doorway that are still coated with the original red and  blue-green paint. The temple and its lintel was protected by a palm thatch roof supported by wooden poles. According to Francisco, the roof was a recent addition, put there to shield the ancient paint from direct exposure to the weather. 

Cobá wasn’t opened up to tourists until the 1980’s; only a small part of the old city has been cleared, and much of that is already overgrown again, with jungle trees sprouting from the steps and platforms.

A short distance away was the main Ball Court, which was definitely bigger than the first one. There were carved stone panels and other sculptures, including a stone skull, very worn, mounted flush with the ground at the center of the court. Most interesting was a large panel of glyphs, a record of dates and other details relevant to the contests that took place here. One of the two goal rings has a section broken out, which is actually typical. They’ve found at least a hundred Mayan Ball Courts in the Yucatan, and only a handful had goal rings still in one piece. At some Mayan sites, broken rings have been replaced with intact replicas. Here, they did no such thing.

The Xai’be Pyramid, also known as the Iglesia (the church)

A stone’s throw from the Iglesia was the Ixmoja Pyramid, the largest building in Cobá. Rising 140 feet from its base, the Ixmoja is the second tallest pyramid in the entire Mayan world, and it’s the main reason why most visitors come to Cobá in the first place. Why is it so popular? Because they still allow visitors to climb the darned thing, 130 very steep steps, all the way to the top, where you’re rewarded with a killer view of the surrounding countryside. Pyramids at most of the Mayan sites in Mexico, including the famous Castillo at Chichén Itzá, have been off limits to visitors for decades, for safety reasons, as well as to protect the monuments from the wear and tear caused by millions of trampling feet. If “climbing a Mayan pyramid” is an item on your bucket list, Cobá is one of the very few places where you can still scratch that itch.

Why do I not have pictures from the top? Because, I regret to say, we didn’t make the climb. We stood there and watched for a bit, but in the end, we elected to skip it. When you get to a certain age, you have to be honest with yourself about your limitations, and about the fragility of old bones. My sense of balance isn’t what it used to be; I get dizzy on ladders, and even worse when looking down from high places. I imagined myself clambering up (and then back down again) all of those steep stone steps, climbing in a conga line with all those other people, and, if I’m being honest? It really didn’t look like fun.

There is a guide rope fixed in place, the one and only concession to visitor safety. A fall from the top could be fatal!

Cobá is known for its stelae, the flat standing stones carved with intricate designs commemorating important persons and events. The glyphs on the stelae, to the extent that they are still legible, tell the story of Cobá’s noble houses, the wars, the alliances, and the succession of rulers (the cabbages and the kings), complete with dates that they’ve been able to translate. There are several groups of stelae in different sections of the ruins, protected from the weather by rustic palm thatch roofs. To the untrained eye, most of them don’t look like much, but for the Maya scholars, they speak volumes.

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There was still a lot more to see, including a large set of buildings known as the Macanxoc Group, but that would have meant pushing our Pedicab driver well beyond the two hours we’d agreed to. The poor guy was pretty well whipped, and Mike and I had put in quite a long day ourselves, so we called a halt. We thanked Francisco for his services, and threw in an extra 200 Pesos as a well-deserved tip.

The drive back to Tulum was uneventful (just the way we like it), and in what seemed like no time at all, we were back at our hotel, sipping on a cold brew. After dinner, we spent a pleasant evening in our room, plotting our next move.  We were close to the mid-point of our expedition to the Yucatan. We’d been to Palenque, Uxmal, Chichén Itzá, Tulum, and now, Cobá. That was the whole top five, so it was time to shift gears, and start exploring some of the sites that are less well known. With dozens of possibilities to choose from, narrowing down the list was a challenge.

We definitely wanted to go back to Campeche. We’d passed through it much too quickly when we were on our way to Merida the week before, and I’d promised myself a closer look at the place before we left the area. With that in mind, we spread out our maps, and plotted a route from the Riviera Maya to the opposite side of the peninsula, by way of Escárcega. That would not only complete our circle around the Yucatan, it would give us easy access to at least a half dozen Mayan cities that we’d be passing along the way. 

DAY 14: From Tulum to Escárcega, via Muyil, Becán, and Chicanná

MUYIL

The name of the Mayan site is Muyil, but the surrounding community is Chunyaxche, and the two names seemed to be interchangeable. For being so close to Tulum, Muyil had an isolated, far-away feel to it, and they certainly weren’t kidding about the lack of crowds. We arrived just past 9 AM, and wandered the grounds for close to an hour. The whole time we were there, we were the only visitors in sight.

Just beyond the rustic ticket booth, a pathway leads past a site map and other signage to the first of Muyil’s buildings, a temple known as “Estructura 7H-3,” a relatively intact structure reminiscent of the building style we saw at Tulum, with a vaulted concrete ceiling, and faded remnants of painted murals on some interior walls. The temple is backed by several larger structures that are crumbling into rubble.

We wound our way through the forest on a well defined path, and after five or ten minutes we approached a large clearing. Rising up above the tree tops was a five-tiered stone pyramid. The painted stucco that once smoothed the exterior is long gone, along with at least half of the carved and fitted facing stones. What’s left, at least on the back side, is clearly exposed as a very large pile of rocks. Near the top there were two stone panels with birds–herons–carved in relief. The caretaker was quite proud of these, as they were newly installed reproductions that he considered “much nicer” than the originals.

Officially, the pyramid is Structure 8-I-13, often referred to as the Castillo, the Castle. It’s not huge, as pyramids go, topping out at just over 50 feet, but it’s definitely imposing. Try to imagine: the equivalent of a five story building, with a three story grand staircase, just appearing, out in the middle of nowhere? Boo-yah!

We kept going most of the way along the path, to Structure 9K-1, aka Temple 8, aka the Pink Palace; so called for the reddish tint of the stone; male golden orb weaver spider; strangler fig (with buttressed roots!)

According to the site map, there was another temple further ahead, at the ultimate end of the path, but right about then, the dark clouds that had been building since we arrived opened up and started POURING on us! Mike was well behind me, still viewing the world through his Go-Pro, so intently that he almost missed me when I came running toward him. “Let’s get out of here,” I shouted as I lumbered past, “Before we get soaked!”  I used my raincoat to shield my cameras, leaving everything else exposed, so by the time we got back to the Jeep, I looked like I’d been showering with my clothes on.

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A path led from the parking area into the trees, and after a short distance, the vegetation closed in on us, almost like being back in the jungle. We walked for a quarter of a mile or so before we finally spotted the entrance booth. Couldn’t miss it–the path actually went right through the building! The site’s caretaker (the only staff person in evidence) charged us 80 Pesos apiece to enter, which was more than Muyil, but less than every other place we’d been.

There was a site map posted outside the entrance booth, and we paused for a moment to study it:

This was the first plan of the city that I’d seen, and the name of the place suddenly made sense: Becán, which translates from the Mayan as “Stream formed by Water.”

In this case, the stream in question was a circular canal that surrounds the old city center. This wasn’t a natural formation. This was a moat, pure and simple, backed by earthworks that created a dual barrier for defensive purposes. All you can see from ground level are scattered, disconnected segments, but when viewed from the air, or better yet, from a satellite, the outline of the original channel is still plainly visible.

There was a time when scholars viewed the ancient Mayan society as a peaceful theocracy, comparable to that of the Tibetan Buddhists. The discovery of this defensive moat at Becán was an important revelation, evidence that the Mayan version of a theocracy might not have been quite so peaceful after all. At Becán, they obviously went to a lot of trouble to protect their city. It’s only fair to wonder why they felt that was necessary.

According to the map, there were originally seven bridges that crossed the moat. We followed the main causeway to a wide staircase inside the walls; that led us up to the main plaza, where several massive stone buildings surrounded a circular altar. Stones on the altar, and on several other structures in the old city center still bear traces of the red pigment that once colored many of these buildings.

The back side of the temple known as Structure 1 was partitioned into rooms, possibly living quarters for the city’s elite. The view, looking down, was amazing!

There was a second, smaller plaza to the west of the main plaza, still inside the city walls. We started to walk over that way, but I called a halt to talk it over with Mike. We still had a two hour drive to Escárcega, where we planned to stay the night, plus, there was one more stop I wanted to make. Considering the time, I figured it was best if we cut it short at Becán. Mike agreed, so we turned around, and headed back to the parking lot.

The west plaza’s buildings were concealed from view by the trees, so we didn’t even realize that Becán’s largest pyramid was over there, just out of sight. Like a couple of dummies, we missed what might have been the best part of the ruin, all for the sake of saving a few minutes? There’s a lesson here: if you should ever decide to forego seeing something, especially after you’ve traveled a long distance? You’d best know exactly what you’re skipping, before you walk away!

Like all the Mayan sites we visited, there were fascinating details everwhere, when you looked more closely. Inside one of the stone rooms there was a wasp’s nest unlike anything I’d ever seen, the size of a volleyball with intricate patterns, a perfectly symmetrical work of art.  When I looked at the ground, I spied a column of leafcutter ants, each of them hauling a sliced bit of leaf four times the size of their bodies, cogs in the endlessly moving machine that keeps their colony fed. And then there’s the stone in the ancient buildings, the skillfully carved segments that fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

Every Mayan city we’d seen so far was different from every other. There were common elements, but there were also major regional distinctions, and much of what we were seeing at Becán was unlike anything we’d encountered elsewhere. This part of the Mayan world was known as the Rio Bec region, and the school of design that predominated here was known as Rio Bec Architecture. I did a bit of study on all this, after the fact, and what I found is utterly fascinating:

Do I even need to say it?  Ours was the only vehicle in the small parking lot. We stopped at the ticket booth to pay the 50 Peso entry fee, then studied the site map:

There were just six buildings, most of them in one cluster. We had 30 minutes to see the place, so we got straight to it!

I did some research, (after-the-fact), and the information I turned up was really very interesting. Chicanná was first occupied around 300 BC, about 50 years after Becán got its start, and was abandoned around 1100 AD, which was about 100 years sooner than Becán . It’s thought that Chicanná was actually an exclusive enclave for Becán’s elite, a segregated suburb for the rich and famous. The houses were finer, the temples more ornate. Nothing was too elaborate for the noble folk, and when times were good, they lived like kings. Chicanná peaked early, from the time of its founding until around 250 AD, and it remained, throughout its existence, intertwined with its patron, Becán. There’s nothing big here, no pyramids, just an assortment of smaller structures, done in a hodge-podge of architectural styles.

We turned right when we first entered the ruin, following a path which took us to “Structure XX,” the remains of a temple that, despite the ravages of time, is still the tallest building in Chicanná. The structure is a perfect example of mongrel architecture. The temple at the top is pure Rio Bec: a doorway leading to a blank wall in a solid structure with no interior space. Viewed from the front side, the entire building becomes a giant zoomorphic mask with an open mouth, a feature of the Chenes style of Mayan architecture, and the carved stone facades, especially the multiple depictions of Chac, the rain god, were influenced by the architectural stylings of the Puuc region.

The buildings in Chicanná show the influence of half a dozen distinct schools of Mayan Architecture, but at the core, the underlying theme is that illusive style known as Rio Bec. Structures are built atop a platform, and at each end of the platform there is a tower that comes to a point at the top. When stuccoed, finished, and painted, these towers would appear to be taller than they really are to an observer looking up at them from their base.

The facade would have been painted, back in the day. If you look closely, you can still see traces of red pigment in the recesses between the stones. The inside of the serpent’s mouth would have been red, the color of blood; the teeth white, and the eyes yellow, along with shades of green, blue, and black, to complete the pattern. The Maya were a people who loved color, and with a temple like this one, they would have gone all out. The “House of the Serpent’s Mouth” was a place where important ceremonies took place, grand spectacles that we can only imagine. When the Mayan priests in their colorful feathered robes disappeared through that doorway, they were stepping through the mouth of the Great Serpent into the abode of the gods, and when they emerged again, they were imbued with god-like power. 

We hadn’t made any reservations, so we kept our eyes peeled for hotels, and spotted a place called the Global Express; they had a room for us for 900 Pesos (a bit more than $50). That seemed high, but we were too tired from the drive to shop around for something cheaper. We’d been pretty spoiled by some of the nice places we’d been staying, so this hotel was a disappointment. Not because it was bad; more because it was boring! We weren’t planning to hang around Escárcega, so all we really needed was a clean bed for the night, and the Global Express served that purpose well enough.

This really had been a long one. More driving than anything else, but with three more Mayan cities checked off our list, it felt like we’d had a very full day. I had images of temples and pyramids jumbled together in my brain. I’d taken hundreds of photographs, counting all my shots from Cobá, so I was going to have my work cut out for me, just keeping all those images organized. I was honestly too tired to fool with any of that, there in Escárcega. We had a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, then went back to the hotel and crashed, planning an early start for the next day.

Next up: Mexican Road Trip: Edzná, and Campeche, Where They Dance La Guaranducha!

The slide show below features additional photos taken on the road in Mexico by my inestimable shotgun rider, Michael Fritz. (Michael is responsible for many of the photos in this series of posts). Click any image to expand them to full screen:

(Unless otherwise noted, all other images are my (or Michael’s) original work, and are protected by copyright. They may not be duplicated for commercial purposes.)

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ON THE ROAD IN MEXICO

Mexican Road Trip: From San Cristobal to Oaxaca, and on to Queretaro

This post is a work in progress. Anticipated publication in September, 2024.

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IN THE LAND OF THE MAYA

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