Day 354 – Tulum

Coba Archaeological Site and Cave Cenotes!

Getting to Coba from Tulum

Today we left our airbnb early in the morning so that we could catch the 7am bus to Coba from the ADO bus station. We ended up being too early, since there wasn’t a 7am bus. The bus was actually scheduled for 7:15am. It seemed that it was too early for everyone else too, as the streets of Tulum were empty.  

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There was a lot of people concentrated around the ADO bus station though. Most of the people appeared to be locals with a few tourists here and there. We purchased our tickets to Coba with the second class bus line, Mayab for 50 MXN / $3.84 AUD per person (p/p). There was a bit of a wait for the bus, with a final destination of Valladolid. Around 7:20pm our bus arrived behind a barrier. Everyone got up and waited on our side of the barrier. 

After a few minutes, the bus reversed, without anyone getting on. I just assumed it was a different bus, but then one of the ADO staff members ran after the bus and got it to come back. Then everyone boarded the bus. A super bad break down in communication!! With the passengers actually on the bus, we left a few minutes before 7:30am. The Mayab bus was surprisingly full. I guess a lot of people might use it to go to work or something.

Coba Archaeological Site

We arrived in the town of Coba at 8:10am and were dropped off near the Coba Lagoon. From here we walked towards the archaeological site. Entrance tickets were only 75 MXN / $5.66 AUD p/p. The site is really big, in the fact that the clusters of buildings are spread out. You can hire a bike at the site to ride yourself, or be driven around. We decided to walk the few kilometres.

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The entire site is in the jungle which provides natural shade. We could hear the occasional swarm of bees, but we weren’t concerned as we found out in a previous museum that the bees don’t have stingers. We didn’t even think that there might be more than one variety of bees in Mexico. 

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In an offshoot path that is ~1.2 km, there are various Stelas. If time is short, I would skip this, but we did see monkeys in the far distance.

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The rest of the site is full of un-climbable ruins. Most of the buildings have not been cleared, so look like mounds of stones covered with trees. You can climb one temple which is 45 meters tall. The steps are actually wide, so we found it was easier to climb than most others in Mexico. We saw lots of people struggling to climb down, but this was mainly the tourists with guides. Amateurs :p

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Once at the top, you have beautiful views of the surrounding jungle. All you can see is trees. It was very busy when we made it to the top, but as we sat down for a few minutes everyone left. When we made it to the bottom of the temple, a massive tour group was going up. The tourists come in waves, so it’s the luck of the draw.. 

The other noteworthy building is the Oval Palace. It was really busy here, so we walked around the building to the back, where no one seems to go.

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We left the site just after 10:30am, just two and a half hours after we arrived, despite walking the entire site.

Cycling to Cenotes

We walked back towards the Coba Lagoon, and hired bikes from the first shop we saw with bicycles called Renta de Bicicleta Multun-Ha. The bicycles cost 70 MXN / $5.28 AUD each and just needed to be returned before 5pm. Photo ID had to be left behind, so I gave my Australian drivers license.

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Cenote Choo-Ha

The bikes were pretty good to cycle on the relatively flat roads around the area. There was also minimal traffic so we felt completely safe. There was around 6km to cycle which took us 30 minutes. I pulled out the new Go Pro, and was very worried as the screen kept turning off!

After several attempts to fix it (pulling out the battery) I gave up and just cycled to Cenote Choo-Ha. As you turn off the main road, you have to buy the tickets from a little hut. You can buy the entrance tickets to all 3 cenotes in the area. 

Unfortunately Cenote Choo-Ha was closed.

Cenote Tankach-Ha

So we bought the entrance ticket for Cenote Tankach-Ha for 100 MXN / $7.67 AUD p/p. Yes, it’s more expensive than the ruins! We only bought the tickets for Cenote Tankach-Ha, since we could buy the next entrance ticket on the way out if we weren’t satisfised.

Then we had to cycle another 5-10 minutes down a dirt road to the cenote. We rented some life jackets for 30 MXN / $2.30 AUD p/p. 

To get to the water, you have to climb down a spiral staircase. I know I say this about every cenote but it was amazing! The cenote, is fully enclosed inside a domed cave. From the staircase there are two jumping points. The top one is crazy high, but the lower one was high enough for me. Even jumping off this lower point was scary as hell. We spent around 2 hours at the cenote including eating our packed lunch near our bikes, as we loved it so much. 

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Cenote Multun-Ha

We then cycled to the ticket booth to buy tickets for Cenote Multun-Ha for 100 MXN / $7.67 AUD p/p. This cenote is around 2 km away, down a mainly crappy side road. It was really hot to cycle, with minimal shade. The ride took us 30 minutes. 

At the cenote, we rented life jackets for 50 MXN /  $3.84 AUD p/p. Again we had to walk down some stairs into the less crowded Multun-Ha Cenote. It was a completely different vibe. Once again it was a cenote in a domed cave, but everyone seemed to be whispering, giving the cenote a reverend feeling. The water was so refreshing after our bike rides. 

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We spent an hour at this cenote, leaving around 3pm. It was 3:50pm when we were back at the bike shop to drop of the bikes and pick up my ID.

We thought the rest of the day would be uneventful. But then our next adventure began.

Getting to Tulum from Coba

According to the bus station in Tulum, there were a few options to return to Tulum. The first was with ADO at 3pm (95 MXN / $7.28 AUD p/p), and Mayab would be there at 4pm and 5:30pm. No one mentioned our Oriente bus from 2 days ago that arrived here around 3:30pm.

We walked to what we thought was the ADO Bus Station. However, it was just a retailer. Here a man from the taxi rank told us that the next bus is only at 6pm. He was obviously pushing us to us his taxi.

We refused and walked to the edge of town and waited for a bus under a little shelter. A Mayab bus picked us up at 4:20pm, with a final destination of Cancun. 

The bus took an hour to get back to the ADO bus station in Cancun.

Before going back to our airbnb, we walked to the Super Aki to buy some water and some other supplies. Unfortunately there was no large bottles of water.