Friday, July 8, 2011

The Village of Coba

Yesterday we left Uxmal and headed east toward the coast. Near the ancient site of Coba, we stopped at a little village by the same name. We will be here for five nights.

This morning after seminar I went for a walk into the village. Adjacent to our hotel is a lake, which I think is called Lago Coba. Of course we were discouraged by the locals from swimming in it due to the crocodile sightings. I'll take their advice.


A little further down the road, I came to the main section of the village. Really, there is just one paved road and several unpaved side roads. A couple of tourist shops line the main road, and women wearing traditional huipils walk carrying babies and baskets.
The 2010 census claims there are about 1200 people living here. Most of them are Maya.

After walking along the main road for a while, I turned off onto one of the unpaved side streets. Mangy dogs and baby chickens greeted me in the road. The houses are quite modest. While passing a school, some girls called out "Hola!" and then giggled. I greeted them with a wave, a giggle and an hola of my own.

The road was slippery because it's been raining, warm rain, since we arrived last night. I peered into a well adjacent to a house. The well was square and had a wooden ladder set down into it. At the bottom of the well was a purple toy baby stroller laying on its side. The plastic casing juxtaposed oddly against the grey stones.

Another mangy dog barked at me and I headed back to the main road where I stopped in at a fruit stand. White onions, green bell peppers, papayas, grapes, pears, two kinds of bananas and apples imported from the USA all greeted me. I bought a bunch of grapes and bananas and one apple. It cost the equivalent of $2.65 US. The girl at the counter was pretty and shy. She laughed when I fumbled with the coins, holding them closely to my eyes to inspect each denomination.

Walking back to the hotel, it started to drizzle again. It's a simple life in the village of Coba.




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