Izamal

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We went to Izamal over Spring break. Things to know about Izamal:
- It's mostly painted yellow. That's sort of its famous "thing."
- It has been continuously inhabited since possibly as far back as 750 B.C.
- There are 5 pyramids within the city limits and a couple more just outside. The biggest one, Kinich Kak Moo, is the biggest pyramid in all of the Yucatan and you are welcome to climb up it since the Spanish already hauled off all of the nicely carved stones to build the Franciscan monastery. 
- The monastery has a huge courtyard area, the second largest atrium of any in the word except the Vatican. 

I do not know what this tiny door is for.

We had a nice breakfast.


Joseph is hard into his emo era and refuses to cut his bangs, but they're starting to get in the way of daily activities, thus:


We went on an ATV tour of the town and surrounding pyramids, and I didn't take any other pictures besides this one. Argh.

This is the big pyramid. In this picture, we've climbed from the base onto the main platform where the Maya people were allowed to come up to pray and make sacrifices (not people, just food) and what you see behind us is the extra, second pyramid on top of the main pyramid where only the priests were allowed to go. But they're not there to stop us anymore, so we went up there, too.


I complimented this Russian-speaking guy behind us on his camouflage (his shirt and hat are the exact same color as most of the buildings in town) and he thought it was so funny he repeated it to all his travel companions. Best day ever.


The monastery was founded in 1549 by Fray Diego de Landa, who I'm still bugged at due to that whole "lets burn all the Maya codices because we don't understand them and assume they're of the devil." I'll bet there are a bunch of historians on my side. Anyway, the monastery is lovely and apparently a popular spot for photoshoots.





Here's the inside. You I tried to include Tom for scale, but it's still hard to see that the ceiling is REALLY high.

The candlestick holders are also really big. That's a normal-size dude, so the top of that candle is at least 8 or 9 feet. Catholics really like candles. The altarpiece is a 1940s replacement for the original one that burned. Catholics have a lot of old stuff that has burned. Coincidence?

Some of the original stones in the floor (sunglasses for scale).


Some of the original paintings on the walls.


Apparently they had the local Maya doing the artwork. The guide said that this pattern has also been found inside pyramids.






Desert.


 

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