The Big Day

Ok, so the Big Day started like any other. it was a bit rainy in the a.m., but the rain stopped. It did, however, stay rather windy and cloudy all day. We headed out after breakfast to Chichen Itza about 24 miles to the west of here (Valladolid). Traffic wasn't bad until we got close to the site..then it was a huge clusterfork. There were people, cars, motorcycles, buses everywhere! And lots and lots of police of all kinds. Guess they were waiting for the aliens too. Some enterprising locals had cleared places in the bush to the side of the road for impromptu parking. We walked about 1/2 a mile to the site.

 When we got there, it was already getting crowded and this was fairly early in the day--around 10 a.m.
There were not only the regular park staffers corraling people and guiding them through the chutes (kinda like cattle), the Scouts (boys and girls) were there assisting. We finally made it through the gauntlet of souvenir sellers to the big pyramid

There were people everywhere!! And it hadn't even really gotten bad yet.I won't bore you with pics of the structures too much--you can see those anywhere on the internet. There were tons of hippies, New Agers, tour groups, etc. etc. A really interesting mix of people

People sleeping ^ They probably stayed up all night waiting for the aliens to appear. Probably needed some more windowpane for that to occur.

People meditating ^

People playing instruments ^  This chick was pretty good! Very nice background music to the goings-on.

People taking cheesy pictures in front of the pyramid ^
There were a LOT of people wearing white. I mean, like, at least 20% of the crowd had all white on. I guess we missed the memo on that! Supposed to be all about purification and healing, I guess to help the wearer. Or maybe to be easier to identify by the aliens as True Believers. Who knows?
We finally decded to go to PIste (small town just next to the site) and walk around and have lunch. Quaint typical little Mexican town like any other. A few restaurants, small shops, and a small town square. I wonder what they thought of all the brou-ha-ha? I'll bet they loved the chance to make some extra $$ even if they had to put up with a lot of noise and mayhem. The cops were on patrol though

Rollin' through town^ Mexican stylee.......
Since the Synthesis 2012 gathering was going on in Piste there were a lot of interesting folks there and we came across these people practicing their drumming and dancing. It was very good!

After that, we went back to the site for a while. It was really really crowded for a while...we napped on the grass...people watched....talked to some folks....I got my picture taken a few times because you know how people just love pictures of tattooed freaks like me.....All in all it was a good day! However, since we saw The Sign....we decided to head back to town.

The Sign^
(for those of you who don't read Spanish, it says "2012 it's not the end, it's the start of the party!"