Guides
We have used many
different companies for excursions. In my opinion
Alltournative was the best A+ in my book, and we will use them
again. Here is some info from there website. http://www.alltournative.com
An adventure
travel company since 1999, Alltournative® has been the provider
of unforgettable ecological adventures in the magical Mexican
Maya world. Based in Playa
del Carmen and Cancun
(Mexican Caribbean or Mexico) Alltournative® offers a wide range of
unique adventure vacation options and one-day
expeditions, many of these in exclusive Maya locations. A
small-group philosophy ensures personalized, top quality service on
all adventure travel expeditions, be they the popular one-day
or half day excursions , camping trips, or longer circuit
tours. The support of a highly trained and committed adventure
travel team guarantees safe learning experiences that have been
designed for anyone who wants to have fun exploring the cultural and
natural environment found in Mexico.
We
found them by accident. The company that we had originally booked with, over booked so we could not go. We were desperate
to see Coba, and being Saturday no other excursions were open.
We found allternative thru a reference in town--ALLtournative gave
excursions on Sunday!!! Most don't.
So
they picked us up and took us on along drive into the jungle, we had
an excellent guide named Emilio, just fantastic!! We stopped
in the jungle and walked about an hour thru it-all the while he was
showing us things like tarantulas and giant ants...which trees do
what and a whole lot of information that was very interesting.
We did have to run at times to get past the ants though. We
came to a zip line, and Emilio showed us how to do it, and some
villagers helped us, they also took our packs to the other side of
the zip line. We zipped a couple of hundred feet above a
lake. From there we walked to a ceynote. There Emilio
showed us how to rappel into the ceynote to waiting tubes. One
by one we did (warning girls should not wear bikinis here-you
take the risk of losing your bottoms from the rigging, or at the
very least it becomes a thing) In the ceynote the water is
very relaxing and we stayed there for 45 minutes or so-kinda
cool. They then pull you up and you walk to a Mayan village.
Here they fix you lunch while you kayak around a lake. Lunch was
rice tortillas and chicken, corn--all very very good. From
there we walked back to the bus and rode to Coba. Here is were
the FUN starts!!!
Okay
you are tired by now--hiking-swimming-zipping-kayaking. and we get
to Coba.
Coba
is very undeveloped--which is great!! The pyramid is a ways
into the complex--you can either hike it or rent mountain biked (be careful
to chose a good one) or get a bike taxi to it. We chose the
mountain bikes being in that we bike anyway and are in pretty good
shape.
About
30 minutes of biking and you get to the pyramid--this is the biggest
pyramid on the northern Yucatan!! So you get there and you
have to climb it. Now the stairs/steps are not as small as the
pyramid in Chichen Itza (really small) so the footing climbing it is
good--but by now you are dead tired--I mean dead. It takes
awhile to climb the sucker but its worth it--take pics--lots of
them!! We then climbed back down and mountain biked back to
the buses-stopping on occasion to take more pics of other
ruins. The guide (again he was fantastic) then drove us to a
local cantina and went in and brought out shots of tequila for
everybody and congratulated us!!! He then took us back to our
hotel and said goodbye. Emilio will always be remembered and I wish
the best in life-he was a great guide and a good person.
|
