How to spend a few hours in incredible Izamal
Located about 40 miles east of Merida sits the small, picturesque town of Izamal. Known for its must-see landmark – the Convento de San Antonio de Padua, a former Franciscan monastery – this tiny, magical town offers a rich blend of Mayan, colonial and independent Mexican culture, and it’s a great place to spend a few hours exploring.
When researching and planning for our trip, Izamal caught my eye because it’s colorful. A centuries old monastery – yes, I’m interested – but a whole town painted yellow to boost tourism in the 1960s and welcome a visit from the Pope in 1993? Sign me up.
Yes, you read that right. This whole town is painted the same sunny color of ochre yellow, with some structures sporting white trim here and there. And it’s beautiful.
Izamal is so worth seeing that the Mexican government declared it a “Pueblo Mágico" (Magical Town) in 2002. Started in 2001, the Pueblo Mágico initiative aims to promote and preserve the cultural and historical richness of special communities throughout Mexico, and Izamal is well deserving of the spotlight.
We visited this golden city in early April in the middle of an 11-day Yucatan road trip. We had just spent three lovely days in Valladolid – another Pueblo Mágico – and were headed to Merida. Izamal was an easy 20-minutes-out-of-the-way pit stop along the way. Also, side note, Dzitas was another cute town worth driving through enroute to Izamal. It boasts the nearby Xcajum cenote, complete with an onsite buffet. In case you don’t know, cenotes are natural sinkholes filled with fresh water, and swimming in several of them was the highlight of the trip for my family.
Anyway, back to Izamal. We arrived a little before 11 am and headed straight for the monastery. Finding street parking was easy, but we did have to drive around the main square a few times before deciding to park down one of the connecting streets. I didn’t mind because each yellow alleyway offered something interesting to see, but then again I wasn’t driving!
The Convento de San Antonio de Padua is free to enter and is accessed via multiple ramps, two at its sides and one at the front, before you pass through an archway into the main atrium. According to onsite signage, the atrium is considered to be the largest in all the Americas and the second largest in the world after the Plaza de San Pedro in the Vatican. Inside the courtyard you’re welcomed with a spectacular view of Santuario de la Virgen de Izamal, the monastery’s principal church. Personally though I found the view to be even better framed by the archways when standing in one of the four galleries bordering the atrium.
Said to be built between 1533 and 1561, the building has clearly seen several centuries of use. Compared to some of the photos I’d seen online, in person it was a bit worse-for-wear than I expected. There was lots of scaffolding, flaked paint, and no grass, but honestly it all added to the old world charm. Scholars say the monastery was built in place of the ancient Mayan Pop-hol-Chac pyramid, whose stones were used for material for the new building. The many surrounding hills and mounds are also thought to be the ruins of other ancient pyramids. We found this to be the case in nearly every area we drove in Yucatan, and it’s wild to think how many structures have yet to be (or will never) be uncovered.
We sat still in the church’s chapel for a bit, people watching and appreciating the artwork and gilded altarpiece in the sanctuary. But then it was time for lunch.
I had already bookmarked Restaurante Kinich Izamal for its rave reviews, but was thrilled when our beloved Chichen Itza tour guide Pepe told us Izamal was his hometown and that we had to try the food there. He recommended a signature dish of Yucatecan cuisine – Poc chuc – which is a Mayan-style grilled pork fillet marinated in a citrus-based marinade, often served with rice, pickled onions and other traditional sides. Lance devoured it while the kids and I enjoyed tacos. We also ordered a Queso Relleno that only Lance ate, because I just can’t handle the taste of melted edam cheese. But we all loved the habanero lemonade!
In the end, I didn’t love the food there but still would go back and try something else. Restaurante Kinich Izamal had a lovely ambiance with many plants, water features and a thatched roof, excellent service and best of all, a playground for the kids. Honestly I was surprised (and grateful!) to see a restaurant of this caliber offer a play space for the kids. Complete with slides, a climbing area and swings, the kids had more than enough to keep them entertained while we waited for our food. Note: The play structure was covered but the heat was still too much and brought the kids back to our table to cool off periodically. We were there during Spring Break – I can only imagine what summer temperatures must feel like!
