Great photos of Coba! I had no idea! No didnt see Chichen Itza at night but I am sure it super-impressive (just like your Coba shots).
Here is a quote from my trip diary at the time...I went to a place like Coba - it was called Calakmul - deep in the jungle...here is an extract from my diary at the time...
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 17:44:31 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Andy 750K4 - Chichen Itza, Yucatan Peninsula (10,000miles)
"I am now in Piste which is a little town next to Chichen Itza, one of the most famous ruins in the Yucatan Peninsula and the Maya-Toltec world. Here’s an account of how I got here from Palenque:
After fulfilling a dream to visit the Maya ruins at Palenque (after seeing Frederick Catherwoods drawings as a teenager) we (English couple, van and me) headed south for more Mayan jungle ruins at Bonampak, which is famous for its intact frescoes in the temples. Bonampak sits right in the Lacondon jungle home to the remaining 700 Lacondon Indians and we were planning to stay at the only Lacondon village before heading for Yaxchilan, another major Mayan site up river on the Mexico-Guatemala border. We arrived at Bonampak from Palenque (the road is quite new and very good) and saw our first Lacondon Indians at the entrance gate. They were very interested in my bike, asking how much it cost, how many cylinders, what year etc and one of them even wanted to drive it. I politely said no way! The Indians have long black hair, wide Mayan faces and very strong features (Ali said they were quite handsome) and some wore the traditional white cloth tunic. Bonampak was amazing for we were practically the only ones there and the setting of partially uncovered ruined temples and pyramids was amazing. We were about to leave when we saw a procession of people (zoologists and Lacondian Indians) approach carrying several boxes.
They were here to release toucans back into the wild and did so from the steps of the main pyramid saying something in Spanish to the Lacondons about cycles and spirituality as they did so. "
And the other place I was mentioning...
"The next day we left the Lacondon village and headed east for the Yucatan Peninsula, heading for more jungle ruins at Calakmul (these ones are only partially restored and we had heard they were very good - and we couldn’t just drive past them!). It was a long drive but fortunately the roads were straight and very good. I got another front tire puncture this time at Escarega, a junction town. Fortunately the tire went flat at the gas station, and across the road was a tire shack – the mechanic fixed it within the hour and it cost 30 pesos ($3). No problems this time.
I met up with the van at the turn off for Calakmul (it’s a 60km drive through the jungle from the main road) where they had set up camp at the park ranger station (and manned by a very lonely ranger called Ernesto - he was very keen on the bike and asked lots of questions including would I sell it to him! The sun had set and lucky for me they had a plate of chili waiting for me :-).
.......They told us that tonight at 3am there would be an excellent star shower (lots and lots of shooting stars) and they were going to drive to the ruins and watch them from the top of a pyramid and then see the sun rise. This sounded excellent to us and so we decided to do the same. We all got up at 3.20am and though tired drove down the road to the ruins. Only we didn’t get too far as 10km down the road there was a gate with a guard who wouldn’t listen to our pleas and so we had to watch the stars from the roadside (they were excellent) and sleep in the van until 6am, opening time. We couldn’t drive back as we only had enough fuel for one trip! Anyway the ruins were again excellent.
The main pyramid was spectacular and because it was still under restoration there were workmen there. We saw in the main pyramid an entrance inside at the bottom with workmen at the entrance. We asked if we could look inside and they happily obliged, wow! Excellent to be inside a Mayan pyramid! Narrow passages, hidden chambers, these Mayans were amazing! No treasure, only memories :-). After this we drove onwards heading for Tulum but the English couple got tired and wanted to stay at a laguna just past Chetumal (spelling?) at Bacalar (spelling?). It was a nice lagoon and we went for an afternoon swim, popular with busloads of Mexican tourists and families but I couldn’t really recommend it; tacky music and karaoke at night was very bad! However the beer is always good :-). "
Ah good memories;)
cheers
Andy
P.S. I have photos but they are scanned in to Word and dont know how to get them out of word and onto here. I lost the orignal scan files....any ideas?
