Coba Express Tour

We booked this half day tour to Coba on BookIt.com through Cancun Adventures. We decided on Coba instead of the big one Chichen Itza. We had read some of the reviews and decided that we loved the idea of climbing to the top of one. Anyways, we were told to meet the Cancun Adventures shuttle at our resort at 7:30 am. Once we checked out of the resort with security we were first on the shuttle. We stopped at a few other resorts on the way to the Cancun Adventures headquarters. This is where we met our guide for the day, Fabricio. Once everyone was grouped together we were back on the shuttle and on our way to Coba. I believe it was about an hour to get there. Along the way Fabricio started to tell us a little about where we were going and showing us pictures. He was very knowledgeable and you could tell he loved his history.

This tour is set up as guided for the first hour and a half you are at the site with another hour and a half free time after. Once we arrived onsite Fabricio made sure to show us the meeting place for later. It was in front of a local open front shop that was selling the normal tourist stuff. We walked in to the site and Fabricio was a wealth of knowledge. The Coba ruins is not just a pyramid in Mexico like we thought. It is part of a whole area of ruins that is kind of sprawled out. The Mayans had roads that connected all the sites together. To start the tour we got on some of the bike. This is essentially a bicycle that basically fit 3 people. The “driver” who was the a guy who was doing all the pedaling was in the normal seat and there was a big seat on the front that was just big enough for two. These guys just ride people around all day. Anyways, they rode us to each stop and waited for us until it was time to go to the next stop. They were with us until we reached the end. It was a pleasant surprise as there is a lot of walking. Each stop had great ruins to look at and we got to learn about them all from Fabricio.

When we finally made it to Nahoch Mul which is the tallest Mayan castle and the primary temple of the area we were in. This also signified the end of the guided part and the beginning off the free time. This pyramid is 138 feet tall and has 120 steps that are tall and uneven. Fabricio cautioned us that it took him an hour and a half to bring someone down one time so to please stop half way up and make sure you can make it back down. I guess we didn’t understand what he meant as going up should be the hard part, right? We pretty much used our hands and crab walked up the whole thing. Some of the steps are tall, some short, and some are very skinny they barely fit your foot on it making the hand part a necessity. Half way up we stopped and looked down. It didn’t seem so bad so we went up the whole way. At the top the view was incredible! You could see everything for miles. I am a little afraid of heights but as long as i didn’t get near the edge I was fine. We took selfies and pictures for other people while we were there. Looking down though we could see why some people would have trouble coming back down.

There is a really thick rope that goes from the top of the pyramid to the bottom. We basically grabbed on to that and stepped down one step at a time going sideways. At one point i stepped on a step that was well polished from use but had become slick and my foot slid right down. If i hadn’t been holding on to the rope i would have basically fell and taken out everyone below me. As it was the lady below me heard and it scared the crap out of her. I heard her telling the person below her that she thought the lady above her was going to fall on her. It was a little funny but the real lesson to learn is to hold on to the rope! It was a lifesaver. Literally! Another one of us slid towards the end but it was close to the bottom so he basically saved himself by just jumping down the last few steps to the bottom. I could tell you that it was one of the scarier things i have done but the rewards were worth it!

Once we were down we cooled off a little and then hit our bike taxi to go back to the entrance. Now we knew why everyone looks so wasted and tired when we passed them riding in on our bike taxi. They were! It is no easy feat to go up the whole pyramid, down, and walk all the way back to the entrance. Makes the bike taxis worth their weight in gold! Once we were back to the entrance we made our way to the rendezvous point of the gift shop. There Fabricio was waiting with cold wet towels that smelled like lemon. This was such a nice surprise. They had cold drinks and a nice lunch awaiting inside the air conditioned shuttle. We spent a little time in the gift shop to give back to the local economy while we got some souvenirs. We also used their restroomsbefore we made the hour trip back to drop off Fabricio. We booked this trip at the same time we purchased our plane tickets and the Resort stay on BookIt.com. It was easy to book and well worth the money we paid. Our guide Fabricio was one of the best guides we have ever had on any tour. Will use Cancun Adventures again next time.