Coba -The Enchanted City
Once
home to over 50,000 Maya, Coba was one of the greatest cities in the Mayan world.
No one knows exactly what happened over 1,000 years ago when the people vanished.
Possibly there was a drought and the difficult rocky land of the Yucatan refused
to yield any crops, it could also have been the wars within the Mayan civilization
that made these people leave. There is no clear explanation.
Don Francisco Itzá Xuluc and his 4 brothers
and 4 sisters came to Coba in 1969 to settle on a ranch. They moved
to Coba from Chichén Itzá where their family had lived
since ancient times. Their ranch was home to cattle, who shared the land
with crocodiles, toucans and jaguars.
Don Francisco tells a little known story of how Coba was rediscovered:
In 1966 local chicleros, gum tree harvesters-the
Yucatan is where chewing gum comes from- discovered these ruins in the middle
of the dense jungle. They told their managers, who in turn reported the
ruins to the owners of the American gum company. A group of American archaeologists
came to the ruins and found quite a few steale (huge carved flat stones
telling stories 
about the city and Mayan history). These Americans
cut some of the steale in two, due to their size, and lashed the pieces
to mules to take to Mérida for shipment to the United States. Hearing
about the attempted removal of these sacred Maya artifacts, some brave chicleros
reported the crime in progress to the authorities in Mérida. A group
of Mexican military and local police were sent to intercept the robbers,
and the steale were returned. Due to the impressive ruins, the new state
of Quintana Roo built a road from Valladolid to Coba to allow for
continued excavation and preservation of the site of Coba.
It is said that spirits still live in the city of Coba, and there are a few Maya who visit and can see all of these spirits living their normal daily lives. At night strange sounds can be heard, and as the legend continues, when Coba is repopulated, the world as we know it will come to an end. So our suggestion is to visit, but don't stay forever.
If you speak a little Spanish, spend a night at El Bocadito and talk to Don Francisco about the history of Coba. You will be sure to learn a few things.