The night was dark; the year was new. It was one o’clock and half of us were at the peak of drunkness. The first night of the new year. 2014. The year was young and just getting started. While at the party we had an amazing idea, the smartest one of all you might even say.

“Let’s sneak into Chichen-Itza, and kick off the new year with a bang,” my crazy uncle said. We thought it was a joke and could have never imagined we’d actually do it. We’d actually sneak into one of the seven world wonders of the ancient world. Regardless of what we thought back then we did it, and our actions spoke for themselves. All twelve of us, different as we all were, walked along. Some were only eight years old and sleepwalking along, others were nearing ninety, yet managed to have that adventurous spirit within them. We walked towards the entrance, saw the small empty security booth, and climbed over the fence without a second thought.

We reached the other side and walked and walked. Until we had finally reached it. It was like a diamond on the dark, a jewel of the night sky. It was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen, and so we walked closer. We were in awe, beholding all of its glory. But that did not last. No more than five minutes after reaching the world wonder, we heard a motorcycle in the distance. We heard, what we rightfully assumed was a guard. We all panicked and split in two. seven of the twelve people sprinted back to the hotel. The women ruining their high heels, the men making noise with the tingling of their belts. It was funny. Me and four others decided to stay behind. Hoping, and some of us even praying, that we would not get caught.

The roster was pretty diverse: It was me, my older brother of 15, my future girlfriend, my crazy uncle who had the idea of doing this in the first place, and an 80 something-year-old elder woman who did not know what she was doing there. By the time the guard actually reached us we were fairly well prepared. My brother was hugging himself using the old ball-formation, hidden behind a large rock and covered by bushes. The rest of us were forming a single file line behind a somewhat wide tree. No the thickest, only somewhat thick. It was as though someone had taken a frame out of an old Scooby Doo episode. The only thing missing was the laugh track. Everyone was trembling as the guard got out of his bike. His footsteps very loud. The guard turned on a large flashlight he had and pointed it directly at the tree. I turned to the gorgeous pyramid and prayed to whatever it was I believed back in the day. The flashlight kept moving, coming in and out of frame. I turned to my brother below us, who pointed at a bush. I knew what he was saying, it was like a video game: Press A to jump whenever the light is not there. I did. Then she did. Then he did. And then she did. We were all lying chest down, crawling through the bushes and ruining our fancy party clothes in what is, to this day, the most brutally intense game of cat and mouse/hide and seek I have played in my entire life. Three long hours without making a sound, moving only in small increments. The guard came and went. Pointed at us and then didn’t. He has searching, he knew something was up and we were in the dark. We did not know what had happened to the others if they had been caught or had reached the hotel. All I knew was that we were going to be there a while, I knew this was going to be an unforgettable experience, and I knew I would tell this story over and over again.