Is two nights in Izamal too much?
- georgiaphillips210
- 6 days ago
- 8 min read
When doing research on the Yucatan Peninsular, the "magical town" (pueblo magico) of Izamal caught our attention. Often called the yellow city due to the bright mustard yellow paint covering every building, the small town features on a lot of blogs as a perfect day-tip destination. As we were more than ready to leave Merida behind and Izamal was along the route we were taking, we decided to book two nights there instead. Was this a good idea? Only time would tell.
Getting from Merida to Izamal was easy and cheap, but it did require us to leave ADO's reliable buses behind and take a chance on the unknown Oriente bus company instead. We didn't need to (and in fact couldn't) pre-book the tickets, but we could load up a travel card at Merida's Central Norest bus station the day before that would work for the journey. The helpful kiosk attendant loaded a card with $82, the exact amount the journey would cost and let us know the bus times for the next morning.
We arrived 20 minutes before the 11am bus, and headed towards the 2nd class bus waiting area. Before we could be let through we showed an attendant checked where we were heading and that we had the transport card we'd need to use the buses. He informed us that our bus should arrive at bay 2, however that didn't stop other buses from also arriving at bay 2, leading to a few false starts before the right bus finally arrived. The driver opened the compartment under the bus and we threw in our big backpacks, before climbing up the coach steps where we tapped our card twice and settled in for the ride.
I don't mind a noisy bus: people chatting, the radio playing, the grumble of the engine, the sound of wind whistling through the open window, thats all part of the experience. What makes me clench my teeth and bite my tongue is the sound of someone playing reels out loud. There's nothing more annoying in my opinion than 5 to 10 seconds clips of songs, or random noises that are abruptly cut off and replaced with something even more irritating. The old man on the seat across the isle was doing precisely that, but his feed seemed to be clips of farm machinery and shouting. What was even more annoying was that he wasn't even looking at his phone, just holding it near his face and swiping absently all while having an in-depth conversation with his seat mate. As soon as some seats became available towards the front, we dashed up the bus leaving the annoyance behind.
The bus was comfortable enough and although it wasn't a quick journey, I enjoyed our meandering route through the region's villages. One reason for our ponderous pace was the lack of official bus stops along the way. In most countries we've visited, a lack of bus stops means a lack of stopping, but for this bus company at least, it just meant we picked up and dropped people off where ever they chose. In one village, we literally stopped at every single intersection, barely traveling 50 meters at a time before someone wanted on or off.
The nearer we got to Izamal, the worse the weather became and cloudy skies gave way to a torrential downpour. Watching the bus hurtle through puddles, spraying water as high as the windows made me slightly worried for our bags stored underneath, but there was nothing to be done until we arrived. I thought it would just be the rough country roads we traveled that would be flooded but as we arrived in the town we could see that wasn't the case. Water lapped against the high curbs lining the streets but thankfully most pavements were dry. The bus pulled up to the station and we hopped off, remembering to grab our (thankfully un-soggy) luggage from underneath. As the rain still hadn't stopped, we hid in the bus station for twenty minutes before we headed off in search of something to eat.
Getting to our accommodation was somewhat of an adventure, some streets were still flooded and our desire not to get wet feet led to a more meandering route. The sun at least was shining, the dark rain clouds had completely vanished from the sky leaving blue skies and a slightly muggy heat behind. When we eventually received the keys to our hotel room (they kept us waiting an hour despite the room being ready), we realised the convent core aesthetic the hotel was going for looked much more appealing in photos than it did in real life. Our room was austere and functional, a bed, a dresser, a wardrobe and a bathroom. The only light let in was from two small wooden dowel covered windows set into the door, and that's only when we opened the wooden shutters to trade privacy for light. The only nod to modernity was in the air-conditioning (thank god!) and wall-mounted tv.
Oh well, the hotel wasn't the reason we visited Izamal, the room was only for sleeping in and the large (and slightly leaf strewn) pool outside was calling our name - we could live with it.
Apart from its iconic yellow colour and colonial charm, Izamal has two other main draws, the convent and the various Maya pyramids scattered about the town. Once an important Maya settlement and capital in the region, the town boasts over 80 registered archaeological ruins ranging from the small to entire pyramids. We visited two of these sites and passed by a few others in our exploration of the town.
The first site, Zona Arqueologica Chaltun Ha, was located on the south edge of the town and although it was free to visit, it wasn't really worth it. The walk there wasn't the most pleasant, with aggressive streets dogs roaming the roads nearby, and the site itself was overgrown. Walking down one of the paths trampled into the vegetation led us to the base of what was once a pyramid, but as trees, bushes and grasses were slowly reclaiming the space, that was all we could really see. As it was starting to get dark as we poked around, we decided to head back to town rather than try and fight a way through to climb what was left.
The next morning, after a hearty breakfast at Patio 21, we headed to Izamal's most well known pyramid: Kinich Kak Moo. Once dedicated to a sun deity, the pyramid is thought to have been built between 400 - 600 CE and was an important site for ritual sacrifice to the sun god Kinich Kakmó. Although the portion of the pyramid we could see was colossal, the base continued underground, making it one of the largest pyramids by volume in the whole of Mexico. It's also believed to have been built over an even more ancient pyramid structure, a common Maya practice we learned about in our visit to Templo Mayor in CDMX.
As it's such an important site historically, I thought that it would have cost something to enter but it was entirely free. The gates are locked from sundown to sunrise, and once we saw how steep and un-uniform the last set of steps leading to it's summit were, I could understand why. From the entrance, we climbed the first set of steps which took us to a wide plateaux leading to the next structure. The pyramid had stepped walls either side of the set of stairs leading up. Although these steps were tiny in comparison to other pyramids we'd seen, they were much more treacherous, with sections having worn away making the easiest path less obvious.
As always, getting up was easier than getting down. I arrived at the summit, sweaty and out of breath and declared that I would just have to live there from now on. The view was amazing, the town was laid out before us with its impressive 16th century covent in the centre, and we could see far over the town to the countryside around us too. When it came to going back down I was honestly bricking it, i'm not in love with being high up and as soon as I even think about falling, my legs shake and lock up making the whole process ten times harder. Eventually, with much cursing and determination I made it, catching up to Ben who was patiently waiting for me at the bottom.
The other pyramids we came across were less explorable, locked behind fences in between houses or glimpsed from a cafe garden. It was somewhat bizarre to wander along a road and just come across the ruins without meaning to, but it was nice to see how much effort has gone into protecting these spaces.
Having explored the Maya ruins, all that was left was to head to the convent in Izamal's centre to look around. On our travels across Izamal, we had of course seen Convento de San Antonio - the impressively large and bright yellow Franciscan monastery was honestly hard to miss, but we hadn't yet gone in. Built atop of Maya ruins, the convent is perched above the town squares that surround it. A set of steps brought us to a large open-air atrium, the second largest to be found in a catholic convent - only being beaten by the Vatican.
I was slightly disappointed by the convent itself. Although it appears impressively castle-like, a very small area of it was actually open to the public during our visit. The church itself was very lovely, but I wouldn't make it the main reason for visiting the town. I had initially thought that exploring the convent would take the better part of an hour, but after barely 20 minutes we were on our way.
The rest of our time in Izamal was spent wandering. We wandered the main square, with its temporary fun-fair. We wandered the shops, looking at the local (and rather expensive) textile goods. We wandered the yellow coloured streets, taking photos and looking for cake. We also spend a small amount of time looking at the horses used to cart tourists round on a tour of the town - they weren't special as horses, but they were all wearing hats which we found intriguing.
So was it worth turning a day-trip into a two night stay? I would have to honestly answer no, if not for one small thing.
On our first night in Izamal we noticed that they were setting up a stage for an event in the main square. After questioning some workers, we discovered that the "fiesta" would be happening that night. In hindsight, we should have also clarified at what time the event would start as when we turned up to scope out what the festivities actually were at 8.30pm we were still two hours early.
We never actually worked out what the event was, but as far as we could tell it was some sort of award ceremony for dancers, specifically for those who focus on the traditional Yucatan dance.
We grabbed seats that had been placed on either side of the wide street next to the convent and settled in to watch the show. We didn't actually get to see all that much dancing, but I really enjoyed seeing everyone in their traditional outfits. It was amazing to see how unique each dress could be while also fitting the exact same parameters. The parade of dancers lasted at least an hour, and when we finally left just gone midnight, everything was still in full swing. Although with the language barrier it was difficult to know exactly was going on, we still had an great time and it felt nice to be a part of something wholly unexpected.
Ultimately, two nights in Izamal was too much. However, I wouldn't hesitate to make a day-trip into an overnight stay again. Not only is there a chance to stumble across an unadvertised event like we did, but sometimes just to be able to explore once the majority of tourists leave is enough, to get a glimpse of what it's really like for the locals who live there.
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