Costa Maya, Mexico and Chacchoben Mayan Ruins

Port 4: Costa Maya, Mexico.  We had yet another day of rain in store for us.  In some ways it was nice because it dropped the temperature down by about 20 degrees, but it also brought the bugs out.  Thank goodness I had bug spray with me.  We were excited to go see some Mayan Ruins on this excursion.  After an hour bus we arrived to an area of ruins that had only been recently excavated.  Just like with the caves in Belize, I can't believe how much they let you walk on them!  We loved hearing all about the Mayans way of life and how these massive temples were built.  Pretty incredible to see first hand.  On the bus ride back to the city in poured rain--literally I thought the bus was going to go sliding off the road.  We ran in a downpour through the city and down about a mile long dock to get back the cruise ship.  We were literally dripping wet---every piece of our clothes had to be wrung out and we threw away our Nike's.  All we could do was look at each other and laugh when we got back to the room!

Costa Maya has a massive circular pool right in the center of town with dolphin tanks surrounding it.  These dancers provided entertainment as well.  I enjoyed watching them while waiting for Nick to buy a pair of baby crocodile boots!!!  It goes without saying, that was his graduation gift :)

Here we are on the steps of one of the ruins

I didn't realize there were so many temples at this site, so it was great to spend the day touring all the ruins.  I recommend everyone should visit if they are in the area.

The tour guides literally let us climb all over anything we wanted!

Me on the edge of one of the temples, overlooking the land below.  This area is extremely flat, so anytime you see a mound of dirt or hill the odds are very high there are ruins underneath that haven't been excavated.

These things were massive!  Hard to believe that these were built without bulldozers lifting the rocks up.

The ruins weren't the only huge things---look at this tree!

Here we are standing on one of the larger temples at this site

Behind us is called the "baby temple".  Baby, meaning it is the smallest temple on the site.  The backside of the temple still had some of the red clay paint on it that the Mayans would draw characters on.

Here is an altar across from one of the temples were sacrifices would be made.  The altar was huge!!

Nick at an entrance to one of the temples

Here we are after our 20+ minute run back to the boat--dripping wet.  So funny.

Showered and ready for dinner!

Again, Costa Maya is one of those places we have to come back to.  There is a huge beach resort area with so much to do, and the just an hour bus ride away there are 100's of site of Mayan Ruins.  I loved learning all the history of the area and hearing about the Mayan calendar that ends this year :)