On the road to Coba

I left Playa del Carmen early this morning in a surprisingly crap car and with a degree of trepidation about driving on Mexican roads.

My only explanation for the crap car is that I am not dropping it back in Playa and so I think the car hire franchise saw an opportunity to drop a clunker in their colleagues in Cancun. On the positive side it’s hard to imagine anyone will notice any new scratches on the beast.

Driving isn’t so bad. The roads are a bit hectic, road markings a bit sparse, potholes and speed bumps abound, and rules seem a bit optional. But Mexican drivers seem very patient and calm even when being blocked by a confused Australian (phone balanced in the cup holder to see the map is not making for easy navigation). There is a great deal of use of hazard lights in all sorts of situations but I haven’t quite cracked the code enough to join in.

Even with a relaxed drive I was at Coba just after it opened. Coba is an extensive complex of ruins that are older than the more famous Chichen Itzá. The rulers of Coba commanded this part of the Yucatán peninsula for many years. From their pyramids controlled the local water supply and a network of roads that reached for hundreds of kilometers. But their rivals in Chichen Itzá eventually won out and Coba fell into disrepair and was overwhelmed by the jungle. The ruins around here remained undiscovered for longer than you might expect because the Caste War at the end of the 19th Century made travel in this area dangerous to the point of impossible (the Caste War was the most successful anti-Colonial uprising and saw decades of indigenous rule in the area).

I cycled around the Coba complex through the jungle, which was immensely enjoyable. The pyramids haven’t been entirely freed from the trees and roots which gives them a certain romantic feel. There isn’t really enough left to get a sense of place, but you do get a feel for the scale and the reality. The games area is especial well preserved, but it’s the main pyramid that makes you appreciate the size of what the locals achieved.

Interestingly this pyramid, like most of the other big ones around, is a like a Russian doll. Successive generations used previous pyramids as a base on which to build ever more impressive monuments.

It is hard to escape the whole human sacrifice element, especially as the main pyramids are the obvious remaining monuments. But there was a great deal more to the Mayans sophisticated society than just ripping out the occasional heart. I spent quite some time contemplating the sacrifice idea this morning and ended up realizing that the safest place to be back then was as a priest, and that the power to choose which noble’s son or daughter to sacrifice gave the priests a great deal of control over their society.

The only problem with my Coba trip so far is that it unexpectedly burned through my cash to the point that I was facing the awkward issue of running out of money. I was in the wilds and there were no ATMs to be found – a guy in a shop offered to sell me a coffee for $100 and split the extra in cash. Instead I made a detour into Valladolid, which I hadn’t been planning on visiting until tomorrow. I had to spend a while ATM shopping to find one that looked safe and wasn’t trying to take 20% commission (!) on a cash withdrawal. I felt a great deal more secure when I finally had some cash burning a hole in my pocket and went to have a nice lunch.

My final stretch of driving for the day took me through a bunch of small villages where tiny roadside stalls were trying to sell macrame dresses and machete-opened coconuts. No one seemed to be stopping for either.

I’ve ended up, as planned, sitting by the pool in a hotel just around the corner from the Chichen Itzá ruins which are my mission for tomorrow.