Saturday, March 22, 2008

Izamal

This morning I took the a bus to a town that is painted in yellow and its famous Convento de San Antonio de Padua (1562). I missed the first bus, so waited an hour extra hour. But the sun finally breaks fully through when I arrived in Izamal. The bright sunshine and the bright color, make the town extremely pretty. I just lazy walk around this small town, and stop for lunch and juice when I got too hot.

The convent was built over one of the Mayan pyramids. It is also famous for the monk Fray Diego de Landa, its founder, who burned all the Indian scripts, and then feeling remorse for what he had done, tried to write all he could remember of the ways of the Indians in the Relation of Things of the Yucatan.

John Paul II visited this town back in 1993 and held a special meeting and mass specially for the indigenous people of the area.

This town has some mostly un-restored Mayan building, including one of pretty big one called Kinich-Kamo.

There were a group of architecture students from US here in Mexico with their professor on the bus with me, apparent they are spending 1 semester travel in CA study various architecture in the region. I heard of exchange students and study at sea, but this is first I heard of traveling studying.

Saturday in Merida is Corazon de Merida (Heart of Merida), which they close streets around the main plaza at night, where the restaurants setup table with various live music. There are also mime performers, drummer, vendors, crowns, and outdoor masses. It was fun to walk around.

O, before I went to Izamal, I walked past the Popular local market of Lucas de Galvez in Merida. They sell all kind of goods in there, local fast food, fruits and vegetables, spices, daily items, pets, chickens, pretty much everything. It was nice to see what the local do instead of always on the tourists’ circuit.

1 comment:

Jenifer Bubenik said...

Jonathan-

Where is this town?