This celebration happened to be in Valladolid, the de facto capital of Castilla y Leon, Spain, also known as the garden city, and the city where Christopher Columbus died. The celebration was incidental to the trip, and something I didn’t expect, but my friends carefully planned to surprise me with a party – and they succeeded!

People watch in awe as the morning sun first breaks over the ruins of Chichen Itza, a Maya city considered one of the new seven wonders of the world. A shaman conducts a purification ritual in the small contemporary Maya town of Nolo, while a farmer cuts branches off an Agave plant which will be stripped and made into rope (sisal) at the Hacienda of Sotuta de Peon.