A varied couple of days exploring more Mayan ruins, my first cenotes, and as little time in Playa del Carmen as possible.
A couple of things made Cobá a little different from other Mayan sites I visited. You can hire (for 50 pesos) no gears / minimal brakes bikes to get around, as there is at least 5km or walking to see the whole site. Plenty of people were walking, but it was much more fun cycling around.
Usual Mayan structures included stele carved stones, two well preserved / restored ball courts, and Nohoch Mul, at 42m one of the highest Mayan temples. It didn’t look it from the ground but at the top you were well clear of the forest canopy.
Nearby was Horario de Los Cenotes, three cenotes close together. They’re all in caves, but the water was surprisingly warm for the lack of any daylight. Tankach-Ha was the most fun, with a couple of platforms to jump from, Cho-Ha the most atmospheric and quietest, with great rock formations, and Multan-Ha was probably the largest, if also the busiest.
15 minutes from Playa del Carmen itself is the wonderful Cenote Chaak Tun, where a 1.5 hour guided tour takes you swimming through caverns filled with rock formations, and a few fish and bats. Different to the cenotes visited near Cobá, and the ATM caves visited in Belize, Cenote Chaak Tun was another memorable underground experience.
Finally Playa del Carmen really isn’t my scene, too many people and too little history, but it did have some reasonable street art.
