After Jake got ripped off for $50, bribed a Mexican police officer, ruined his favorite sandals, lost his sunglasses and jacket, and got a nasty parasite, we decided to tough it out and go to Chichen Itza. We waited until late in the day since Jake had been so sick. After driving the three hours to get there, however, a parking attendant told us the park was closed. Shit. So, Jake tries to bribe a man (again) to let us in. It doesn't work this time. Fortunately, the man conveys in broken English that the park will reopen in a few hours for a light show. We wait around in our car, and eventually buy tickets, along with translation headphones so we can understand what's going on. The guards corral us over to El Castillo, where we are told to sit and stay. The show begins and neither of us can figure out how to work our headphones. I decide to start wandering the ruins so that one of the guards will stop me. That way, I can ask him how to work my headphones. Only no one stops me! So here I am roaming this ancient sacred site at night by myself, now completely out of the guards' sight. I make my offerings and speak the prayer I carry with me to all the sacred sites. And then Jake comes over to me. No one has stopped him, either! He says, "Thank you for taking such good care of me when I am sick, and all the times. You always take such good care of me. I wanted to bring you to a sacred site and give you this flower from the land and ask you if you will marry me." I say yes. We squeal in delight, and then look around us in awe. The full, orange moon is rising over El Castillo. We are in pitch dark, but fireflies light up the sky all around us. We wonder where we are and see a temple before us that turns out to be the Temple of the Jaguar. It exudes such power that I don't know if I'd have gone up to it without Jake. We realize that we are standing in the Mayan ball court of a game that represented the movements of the cosmos when it was played. I can't think of a more magical moment.