The Weekenders: Coba, Mexico

 COBA, COBA, COBA 

You know how some weekends just hit different? Like the perfect mix of adventure, activity and relaxation. Coba was it!

Nothing more I love than hitting the open road... and getting snacks. Am I hungry, goodness no. Do I feel the impulse to constantly munch, heck yes. Shoutout to the dang good roadside tortas as we passed through Tulum, but the real MVP and source of entertainment along the way was picking up a piping HOT, HOT TAMALE! I don't know the science behind it, but that molten pocket of stewed meat (?) and gravy (likely bean mash) held its heat like nothing I've ever experienced...and I've eaten my share of pizza pops. But the most curious thing was the sweet senorita just grabbing that shit off the fire with her bare hands.

ANYWAY. 

We rolled into Coba at sunset and despite some pretty lofty weekend plans, immediately proclaimed we weren't leaving the little slice of paradise we'd come upon. It was beautiful, quiet, lakeside, there were palms trees and a breeze. Tropical haven. Before even checking-in, we decided to take in the sunset at the lakeside gazebo, where Little J. aptly inquired, "Why is no one swimming in this lake?" Why indeed. Well after almost no investigation, turns out we got ourselves into a crocodile situation. Guys, we note the warning signs--- We talk about the jaguar crossing, heed the menacing moose signs, even slow down in hopes of seeing a turtle cross the damn road, and we rarely see what might be about. But walking along the lake and actually seeing a 12 ft crocodile just chilling, flashbacks/cautionary tales of Rescue 911 circa 1994 came flooding back. No way were we getting Captain Hook'ed on this vacation. 

OK.

Next day, we grabbed a quick coffee and morning taco and made our way to the Archeological Zone to tour the Mayan ruins. Thought to have been in existence since 50 BC, there's evidence of ancient Mayan civilization in and around Coba everywhere (our hotel even had a roped-off pile of rocks that dated back). The archeological zone is about 26km², and there are five main sites/groups of structures that have been uncovered, which include temples, ball courts, tunnels and chambers. With a couple of them standing 40+metres and nestled into the jungle, it was very Jumanji. If archeology is your thing, checkout this website which gives all the details and pictures of each of the sites https://www.themayanruinswebsite.com/coba.

Our child crushes electrolytes.

As commonly done, we had wanted to bike around the ruins, but there was no option for a baby jump seat. Not one to give-up, Tyler caught a good laugh when he asked if he could just rent a tricycle-taxi and do the chauffeuring himself. After much debate and best efforts, Tyler was sidelined and had to be carted around. I've never seen someone doing nothing, look so forlorn and envious of a guy pushing around a family in 40 degree heat. Tyler loves to pedal. In all, the tricycle ride was about two hrs, and Baby J just kept shouting "It's better than I thought it would be!" So mixed reviews from this family. I personally loved it. Smaller than the better known Chichen Itza, Coba was the best option for us given the time of year (bloody surface of the sun) and time in our lives (don't give an eff-about-history toddler era). We toodled back to the hotel in time for lunch, a nap and swim...and yah, it was a pretty nice little Saturday. 

Hotel Kaab Coba bringing the jungle vibes

THEN.

As per our Saturday afternoon at the pool, we had met a family with a little guy just our size, and on Sunday we all piled in the fam-mobile, and hit the underground caverns (because that's just what you do after a few Modelos). So cenotes are large, freshwater sinkholes found all over the Yucatan Peninsula. Sacred to the Mayans, these were the water sources for the ancient Mayan civilizations, and represented the strong connection to the natural world. For us, these are revered magical caverns, other worldly holes in the ground. Being away from the coast, and it coming into rainy season in Mexico, we had the underworld-cenotes all to ourselves, which was such a cool, slightly eerie experience. Kudos to Tyler for being our trusty sherpa (I feel like I've said this 100x before-- but seriously, Tyler has carried this child to the top of mountains and to the depths of the earth), getting Baby J down the slippery cavernous steps NBD. Kudos to Baby J for hanging with the bats in near darkness. Kudos to the water wings which kept our baby afloat in the 30 metre glaring abyss. This was so cool. 

Cenote Choo-Ha

Cenote Multum Ha

Besides being alone in the caves and swimming in the clear blue water of the underworld, one of the biggest highlights of the day were the flocks of butterflies we found outside the cenotes. Watching two little boys frolic in clouds of yellow butterflies might be one of the purest moments of delights I have ever seen. My heart 💗

SO.

If you're going to the Mayan Riviera, hit up Coba--- and if you feel so able, go under your own steam. Being away from the tourist centres and in nature in all its cold blue, deep green and fluttery magic is just so so good for the ch'ulel.

Road Trips: Icefields Parkway

The Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise up to Jasper is one of the world's most scenic stretches of road. Aptly named for all the glaciers & icefields, the big Rocky Mountain views, sparkling rivers and lakes along the route, it was difficult for us to make any sort of meaningful headway. Continuously stopping for incredible vistas, icy lake dips, hikes and paddles it took us five days to drive 200kms. We could have easily taken longer---this stretch of highway is spectacular!

Waterfowl Lake: Just 40km from Lake Louise, I think this was our least productive driving day of the entire three-month trip. We drove past the lake, became enamored, did a quick U-ie, and ended up staying three nights in the campground. While there, we hiked into Chephren Lake, watched J. fearlessly frolic in the glacial lake and... realized we were out of diapers. Without backtracking to Lake Louise (and TBH there were no nappies there either), the only option was for Tyler to bike the 40 km to the nearby-ish Saskatchewan Crossing to hope that the gas station sold diapers---Spoiler: They did not. Which in hindsight was a blessing, because it forced us to move on. We'd still probably be parked somewhere in the mountains if there was an outpost with a steady supply of pull-ups out there.

Columbia Icefields: A very cool spot for a number of reasons. First being, it's ice, it's so cool it's frozen (whomp whomp). So this icefield once covered all of Canada and when you're driving along this stretch of highway it is amazing to see the massive shelves of ice clinging to the mountain peaks. The Athabasca Glacier is accessible by road and path and is a pretty neat stop. As you are driving towards the glacier there are sign posts along the road marking where the glacier was in different years. The distance and rate at which the glacier is receding is incredible. Since it's hard to capture the magnitude of the area, let me rely on the old '88 CAA guidebook to paint the picture. So in 1988 CAA promised me that we'd be marveling at a glacier that spanned about 300km². That's a big ice cube. Now the glacier is a mere 7km². SEVEN SQUARE KILOMETRES. As we were wandering around the area, someone cheerfully said "Oh, you'll have to visit again in 10 years when your baby can appreciate it" Ha! There won't be enough ice left in 10 years for a snow cone. I joke, but this shit seriously keeps me up at night.

Camping outside of Jasper, we knew we were leaving the mountains behind us for the foreseeable future. It was suddenly dry and hot...and notably flatter. Feeling the bittersweetness of the evening, sad to be putting our west coast life in the rearview mirror, but also so excited for the road ahead. We grilled up our Alberta beef and felt pretty darn lucky for the days, past, present and future.

The Maple Files 🍁

Is there anything more Canadian than maple syrup? 

I have been so excited about this sweet little venture. Everyday we tromp around in the woods, snowshoeing around from tree to tree, checking our buckets, and spending boatloads of time outside. Despite being little saplings in the maple syrup world, I wholeheartedly loved every part of it....perhaps we've found our calling?

Turns out making maple syrup is pretty easy, as long as you've got some minimal equipment, time and maple trees. We've gleaned some tricks and tips from seasoned maplers, and used tapmytrees.com to answer all our maple Q's. Let me break it down;

Tap: For the sap to flow, the nights need to be cold (below 0ºC) and the days need to be warm (above 0ºC). So on the first signs of warmer weather, we strapped on the baby and our snowshoes and headed into the woods to tap some trees. Turns out it's a lot harder to identify maple trees when there are no leaves, something we had never really thought about before. We did poke a few holes in a few innocent ash and oak trees before we found those sweet sugee trees. There is really no second guessing them, as as soon as you drill a hole, the sap starts dripping! Instantly gratifying. So we drilled a few holes, tapped in a some spigots and hung our buckets. Hot tapping tips;

• Tap the trees on the southside---We all like to feel the sun on our faces in the spring.
• Don't tap the trees too early (We tapped early, and then there was another cold snap, so had to re-drill the holes again a couple weeks later)
• If you don't have enough spigots, you can use a sumac reed--this one is yet to be confirmed, and also very impressive. Tip given from a woodsman who's way out of our league.

Collect: Perhaps the most satisfying step. It's like checking the mailbox, anticipating how much or little sap flowed through the day from each tree. Each day after collecting the sap, we poured the tree pee into big buckets that chilled in nature's refrigerator, until it was time to boil ie: the four foot snowbank outside our doorstep. Fun fact- Sap is like milk, needs to be kept cold and used within seven days or it too will go sour.

Boil #1: As mentioned we had tapped a bit early in the season. Initially we had collected about 40 litres, and then temps dropped and the sap stopped flowing. While not constituting a huge amount of sap, we were still eager to see the process through. We brought our sap reserves inside, filtered it to get the forest bits out and boiled 'er down. The ratio of sap to maple syrup is high. It takes about 40 litres to make 1 litre of syrup. So yah, we got about one leet of the sweet stuff on our first boil.

Boil #2&#3: Fast forward a couple weeks, the temps had hit a stride and the sap was consistently flowing. We collected and saved our sap through the week, and did a couple boils outside over the fire, which was very time consuming (10+ hours) but so nourishing. To be outside in the fresh air all day long is really what fills our sap buckets to the brim. Throw in the big simmering pot of fireside butter chicken that Ty stewed, and it really doesn't get any better! 

Consume: What's on the menu? Something drizzled with maple syrup. After boiling down and filtering again to get any fire bits out, we are left with a bunch of the sweet amber sauce that Baby J lovingly calls "sugee syrup". Yes, a time consuming project but so satisfying to make something from scratch and to spend time outside each day among our tree friends. Can't recommend it enough---if you've got a maple tree in your yard, give 'er a tap!

Facts & Figures: 

Tress tapped: 7

Sap collected: ≈ 300 litres

Maple syrup yield: ≈ 5 litres

Stacks of pancakes devoured: I'd rather not say