So I took a trip with my family a couple years ago to Chichen Itza on the Vernal Equinox (Spring Equinox). Chichen Itza is a mexican ruin that is fairly close to Cancun, its a pretty popular destination. We were staying in Merida, which is a couple hours west by bus, and we headed over to Chichen Itza to check it out. I didn't personally get a lot of pics that are awesome, but its a neat location to head to for somebody thats looking for a far away trip. There's a lot of other neat locations around as well.



What makes going on either the spring or fall equinox special is the big festival surrounding the shadow that is cast by the sun on the biggest pyramid. In the spring, there is a shadow that goes causes a snake-like appearance on the steps of the pyramid as the sun sets. To the Mayans this signifies that it is time to plant the crops. In the fall the phenemenon reappears and signifies the harvest.

Here's the pyramid mid-sunset. Note the snake head at the very bottom of the stairs, and the diamonds on its back created by the sun:


The festival itself is really cool, there are thousands of people at the site all day, from all parts of the world. They vary from people like myself who are there as pure tourists, to others who treat this as a religious experience.

This girl got sacrificed or something:


Tons of people:




From a photographer's standpoint, there are a ton of cool things to check out besides the main pyramid, plus the people watching alone was just simply awesome. The coolest thing I saw (but didn't get a picture of) was a girl wrapped in just a white sheet, carrying a crystal looking skull, murmuring what sounded like jibberish prayers.

Two years ago I'd have known a fact about this:


Later in the day we saw a sliver of the moon:


The rest of my familys pics from Chichen Itza are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jay1441...7600876270943/

I like your pics and you get an A+ for your narrative style.

Nice write-up! This is the kind of stuff we need in this forum... good information about all the places we all end up.

- Scott

It looks like it was a fun time. I would LOVE to go, but all those people scare me.

Especially if there are sacrifices going on

awesome pics, I would love to get some there without all the people...

My brother snagged that pic.

I have a bunch more pics from a bunch more places, and probably a bunch more bored nights on 3rd shift to add to the forumz.

These pics are all from back in teh day when I never PP'ed or even really adjusted/cropped any pics. They get the job done but I wish I could go back with my SLR.

Originally Posted by subimatt

awesome pics, I would love to get some there without all the people...

There's some on that flickr link from earlier in teh day with less people. We spent a LOT of time there that day.

Nice write up, at the moon....

Originally Posted by thechickencow

Originally Posted by subimatt

awesome pics, I would love to get some there without all the people...

There's some on that flickr link from earlier in teh day with less people. We spent a LOT of time there that day.

Ya know some ppl dont see links with the glare of Silver Moons

I forgot that we made our own pyramid later in the day - shot by some french girl that didn't know english. I had to use my spanglish to get her to take the shot:



Then we stood on our hands very poorly - in the back of this one you can see the people dressed in all white. This was the typical dress of the ones worshipping the temple:

Originally Posted by thechickencow

I forgot that we made our own pyramid later in the day - shot by some french girl that didn't know english. I had to use my spanglish to get her to take the shot:

That's one of my most favoritist things about traveling. When you put yourself into an environment where your normal and casual mechanism for communication is stripped from you, you are left with nothing but the "universal language" (lots of pointing and speaking slowly and loudly in emphatic English until they get the point).

And somehow, it just works. It just wouldn't if we weren't all the same.

I think the only spanish word we both knew was fotografia, and she had no idea we were going to form a pyramid. She really appeared to just be some hippie american even so I wasn't expecting to have to converse in that way but you're right, it worked.