Another Try at a Full Moon Photo in Cholula

I traveled to Cholula, Mexico over the past Easter weekend in another attempt to get a photo of the Iglesia De Los Remedios with a full moon rising behind it.  I had tried to take this photo back in September of 2018, but was somewhat thwarted by a large tent erected in front of the church.  I decided to return when the full moon would be behind the church again.

This time around, I also researched a backup location I could move to if things didn’t work out well.

My trip to Cholula turned out to be quite stressful. The night before I was to leave, my flight on American Airlines was cancelled.  I was able to have them book me on United, Indianapolis to Chicago to Mexico City arriving at roughly the same time.  No problem, right?

I got up at 3:15 a.m. and arrived at the airport by 4:30 a.m.  There were storms in Chicago and Indianapolis, so both airports went to ground stop.  After thirty minutes of delay, I realized I wouldn’t make my connection to Mexico City in Chicago.  United rescheduled me through Houston, but neglected to mention that the front passing through Indianapolis and Chicago was also in Houston, and they were going to shut down as well.

So before I even left Indianapolis for Houston, I realized I’d miss the connection to Mexico City.  There were later flights, but by the time I realized this, those flights were full as well.  So they gave me a standby ticket for the next flight to Mexico City and let me keep the old one in case we made it.  At this point, I hadn’t even left Indianapolis yet.

We finally left Indianapolis.  We were still en route to Houston when my original connection to Mexico City left.  Obviously, I wasn’t on it.

When we finally arrived in Houston, I had twenty minutes to get through several terminals, see if someone else didn’t make it, and get the standby ticket.  I arrived just as they started boarding.  I ran to the desk.  The clerk handed me a boarding pass with the last seat available — and it’s 1B — first class!

I got on the plane and we sat for sixty minutes.  I was starting to think that by the time I reached Mexico City, I wouldn’t have enough time to get to Cholula before the moonrise.  After they delay, we finally took off.

We landed in Mexico City, I got through customs in twenty minutes, walked onto a bus that was leaving for Puebla.  Two hours later, I arrived in Puebla, got a cab to Cholula, and arrived at the hotel with fifteen minutes to spare.

I set up on the roof of the hotel, the moon came up, and it goes straight into the clouds.  You’ve got to be kidding me.  It starts to poke out a bit later, but by now is too high for the original photo.  So I proceeded quickly to my alternate location, seven blocks away.  This is right in front of the church, so the moon won’t be as big, but I can get down low and use the angle to get the moon in the photo.  Shrubs are blocking some of the view, but I did get a shot!  So while it wasn’t what I’d hoped for, I left with something.  This one turned out to be very popular on my Instagram — the most likes ever.

Cholula Moonrise

 

Related posts:

Another Cholula Moon Photo Cholula Moon A Full Moon and The Day of the Dead Full Moon at Portland Head Light