Coba is a very large yet only partially excavated Mayan site found in Mexico. The area is made up of 4 groups of buildings; Coba, Macanxoc, Las Pinturas and Nohoch Mul. All of which are located within a kilometre or so from each other.
The Pyramid of Nohoch Mul:
Each can easily be visited either on foot, by bicycle (hires available on site) or by taxi (a bicycle with passenger seats at the front). We opted on walking the site and it took us about 3 hours to do the whole area, including climbing the tallest pyramid in the northern Yucatan found in the Nohoch Mul group from which you can see the jungle all around – a truly impressive view and worth the climb!
For us the main appeal of Coba is the seclusion of the site itself, you really have no idea of where the next set of buildings are until you turn a corner and come face to face with them.
One of the things we found particularly nice about the site was due to its size you could walk around without having crowds of tourist around you. In fact most of the tours we came across on the day were hiring bicycles so they would just speed past now and again without really giving us that crowded site feeling.
Las Pinturas Group
Coba is about a half an hour’s drive from Tulum and as we found a good last minute deal, we hired a car for the day. This then gave us the freedom to be able to see the nearby cenotes, a group of 3 subterranean ones which luckily for us were not being visited by the tours as we found them virtually empty.
Cenote Multun Ha
Coba was the last archaeological site we visited in Mexico before we moved onto Belize.