Day 28: Coba (Return to the dentist.)

January 26, 2026

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We got up, as is becoming our custom, with the sun, and set off around the lake to see which birds might have woken up. Before leaving, Dodie handed me an article in which somebody describes their walk from the nearby Coba-Chemax road, down to our lake, and then around the archeological site. The article was liberally laced with bird species names coming one after the other, to the point that I decided this was bird watching pornography. Still we went out with the anticipation that we might "score" at least one new species.

Well, it was not a burlesque show out there, but we did see 14 species, of which two were new for the year and one was also a lifer:

Common Yellowthroat , common, but a lifer for us! Note the nice background on the shot.

We walked along the boardwalk, pushing the bikes, which we foolishly had brought along. The boardwalk and the lake are beautiful, especially in the morning.

Looking across the east end of the lake, to where our hotel last time was.

On this walk, we passed the Cocodrilo restaurant on our left, with the field where we expect to see any cocodrilos across the street. But wait, here was a giant one, over here by us! It was just by the boardwalk, in the reeds where we had been spotting the Yellowthroats. Not that we had planned to walk in those reeds to collect more Yellowthroats!

We chatted with a local a little later, speculating correctly that nobody swims in the lake. The crocs anyway prefer to eat dogs, and also grebes, which are sometimes foolish enough to go harass them.

We made a video of the croc for the grandkids, sure we would entertain them with this lurid content. A minute after we completed this, we turned around and the croc was gone. We are learning that they seem immobile or asleep, but they are alert, and prone to fast action when they decide on it.

We carried on around the lake, happily spotting this bird and that:

At the far end of the lake there is a sort of hotel called Coqui Coqui. It is only a sort of hotel because it is mainly a perfumery. One of the employees had strolled out, and was helping us identify birds by their shore. It was from him that we learned more about the crocodiles, and that the fish in the lake - that you can catch if you are brave enough to be by the shore, are tilapia.

We told the man about our plan to try to talk our way into the archeological site tomorrow a.m. with the bikes, and then to make a dash to the main pyramid, as close to the 8 a.m. opening as possible. He explained that the sire is under the joint control of the archeology department and also something representing the owners - presumably the Maya. The archeologists fiercely defend the integrity of the site, he said, while the Maya might be willing to bend for some cash. The problem that both would face in dealing with us, he said, was that if they let two geriatric Canadians in on little ebikes, the next to show up could be aggessive Americans on motorbikes.

Coqui Coqui, looks like a Mayan ruin but was built just 15 years ago.

Dodie resolved to go to the archeology site right today, and to negotiate our way in. I recommended against doing that today, because tomorrow we would have to replay whatever fight was involved. So, we headed straight to the site!

When we got there, to my surprise, the guys at the ticket booth remembered us, and asked how my tooth was doing. Dodie then launched her spiel, something about needing her specific bike as a mobility aid for her decrepit body, and being unable to mount or ride anything but it (all sort of true). The ticket office man then set off with Dodie, to go meet with the big boss.

Mr. Big turned out to be an archeology Ph.D., and he at first said no. But Dodie's ticket man argued our case, in Mayan, repeating the points that Dodie had made. They must have sounded good in Mayan, because the professor got on the phone and consulted with someone (Mr. Bigger Big?) and a deal was struck that we would pay the bike rental fee but use our bikes. In that sense the fee would be more like a license fee. So we are in for tomorrow, hopefully.

This return to my "Baby" dentist could have been a really big day, had I been trying to hold out with tooth pain over the past 18 days since the root canal work. I would have been a puddle of misery. But for the past 10 days the pain has been gone, making today not such a big deal.

The dentist took further xrays today, and confirmed that while infection was likely the cause of my pain, it was now gone. That gave the green light to remove the temporary something that was in there, and replace it with a more robust temporary something. This took well over an hour, what with a lot of Google Translate typing going on. Remarkably, the dentist made no further charge, which left the total cost at a shockingly low 1800 pesos.

The dentist had to spend a lot of time with Google Translate. He explained that the original infection usually goes away when the repair is done. But I was apparently too weak to complete the process.

I got the ok to chew on the new filling right away, putting Dodie, the chewing police, out of business. But at the same time I will say that it was Dodie, with her box of antibiotics that actually saved the day. In those few days right after the original procedure, I was heading straight down the drain. Thanks for the rescue, Dodie!

We walked back home, wondering which dog would be likely croc chow. This one was dangerously close in, we thought.

Here we are back at our hotel. We allowed an extra day here in case more dental work would have been needed. But now we can visit the ruins and swim the rest of the day.

Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 1,032 km (641 miles)

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Karen PoretGlad you got the green light on chewing again, but, as you well know, Dodie is right to be careful, just in case ..She knows when you’re eating!
PS. Stay away from the crocodile, lest you become its reason to “smile”…
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