Autumn Equinox, Chichen Itza, Mexico

Posted by Jackie Hewett on Sun 30th August 2009 at 10:07 PM, Filed in September

The spring and autumn equinox (20th – 21st March and 21st – 22nd September) are arguably THE time to visit the great archaeological site of Chichen Itza on the Yukatan peninsula.  In both the morning and evening of these four days the angle of the sun casts a shadow on the famous El Castillo pyramid which makes it look like a serpent is winding its way down the structure.  The head of the snake being at the bottom of the steps on El Castillo.  The only problem with going at this time of the year is that you can guarantee it will be crowded.

I have been fortunate to visit Chichen Itza, although not during an equinox.  The site is huge (see Chichen Itza article) – allow the best part of a day to really take it in, and for this reason I would recommend hiring a car and ‘going it alone’ with a good guide book or hiring a private guide rather than going on a day trip from a hotel when you are only likely to get 2-3 hours at the site.  Hiring a car is easy – we got ours from Cancun.  The drive was about 3 hours on reasonable dual carriage way roads, and we made an overnight stay in nearby Merida so we could visit nearby site of Uxmal the next day.  I would definitely recommend a visit to Uxmal too if history is your thing.  Making our own way there was definitely the right thing to do – for us.

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