Gold in the Yucatan. Well, Izamal, a dirty yellow Pueblo Magico.

Having left Chichén Itzá behind; now a distant memory of monumental structures and annoying instsnapchattergramers, all desperately wanting to become another in a long line of: ~~vacuous vapid individuals~~

~~influencers,~~

I stand corrected, vacuous vapid individuals. Don't get me wrong I am not some miserable old git, but shit how long does in take to press a button on a mobile phone? and HOW MANY pouting stupid poses are you going to make. FUCK OFF out of my way. Yes I am a miserable old git 😂

This small town has a population of 15,000 and is one of the 135 pueblos mágicos (magic towns) in Mexico.

What is a pueblo magico you may I ask? and quite rightly so.

Please.

Allow me to mansplain

Apparently it is quite a prestigious designation awarded by Mexico’s Tourism Secretary to "exceptional small towns in the country."

To qualify a town needs to have good infrastructure and plenty of things to do that a visitor will enjoy. Hmm, in Izamal's case methinks poetic licence has been pushed to the limits

They need to be safe, with something unusual and noteworthy about them —in the case of Izamal it is completely yellow.

Izamal was originally founded some 2,000 years ago by the Maya. and hence the town is named after the ancient Mayan god Itzamná.

The Spanish Conquistadors arrived in the 1550s and because the area remained an important pilgrimage place for the Maya, the Catholics decided that here would be a good place to put one of their first churches on the Yucatán Peninsula.

CONVENTO DE SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA

So, when the Spaniards conquered Izamal, they totally destroyed the major Maya temple - Ppapp-Hol-Chac - and in 1533 began to build the Convento de San Antonio de Padua from the stones and rubble, it was completed 28 years later

I swam across I jumped across for you Oh, what a thing to do 'Cause you were all yellow

Writing this up I can't get that damn song out of my head, I bet it stays with you all day too!

The principal church is the Santuario de la Virgen de Izamal - Sanctuary of the Virgin of Izamal - approached by a ramp from the main square which leads into the Atrium, 2nd in global size after the one in Rome

The impressively gilded altar was built in the 1940s, replacing the original that was destroyed by fire.

Loved ones remembered in someone's prayers........

.....and memorials to those long departed

Why is Izamal yellow?

No one really knows, it has only been such since the early 1990's, around the time of the visit by the Polish pope. Some say it was to "honour" him.

Others say it was to celebrate the Sun God of the Mayans. I hope the latter is true.