Things to Do in Izamal Yucatan Peninsula, Izamal, Mexico

We had heard so much about Izamal “The Yellow City” and had seen some stunning photos of this unique colonial town in the Yucatan Mexico, we just had to go and see for ourselves what all the hype was about. With the assistance of Visit Mexico and Yucatan Turismo who assisted us in planning a 4 day itinerary we set aside an afternoon to visit on our return from Chichen Itza. 

Our quest was to find out all about Izamal and “Why Izamal is Painted Yellow?” We got our answer. Since 1000BC Izamal was an important Mayan pilgrimage site. The Sun God known as Kinich Kakmo was the deity that the Mayans paid their respects to. During that time not all of the houses were painted in yellow but in pastel colours instead.

Skip a few thousand odd years to 1993 when it was announced that Pope John Paul II would visit Izamal as part of his tour of Mexico. If someone that important was going out of his way to visit the town, the town needed to have a ‘make over’. The colour ‘yellow’ represents the sun. It also represents the colour of corn, a staple food of Mexico. In the ‘make over’ even the Convent got in the act. Shame on us for thinking that someone had gotten a great deal on the colour and that was the only colour you could buy in the area – just like Henry Ford when he said “you could buy a car in any colour as long as it was black.” ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).