16th of August, 2015
For most of my trips in and around Merida, I took the local bus. There are four different main bus stations in Merida and it all depends which direction you go. Sometimes you can choose between a first class or second class bus and those bus stations are also different, but often close to each other situated. So it is a little bit a puzzle to find out the right station, the time schedule and if you have to buy your ticket a few days in advance or just the day of travelling.
To go to Izamal, I left with the bus from the main station Orient at 8.30. It was a drive of around one and half hour and the road was pretty boring, as Yucatan is flat and dry and the only distraction was a stop in the village of Hoctun.
Once in Izamal, the San Antonio de Padua church and convent is immediately towering in front of you, with its specific colour of golden-yellow, also the colour of most of the houses in Izamal. The altar piece in the church is of carved wood and gold leaf overlay and dedicated to the Virgin of Izamal, patron Saint of Yucatan. Pope John Paul II chose this church to hold the Meeting of America’s Ethnicities, because of it’s profound indigenous-Spanish symbolism.
Izamal is a mixture of Spanish Yucatan, Mayan Yucatan and today’s Yucatan. It is also one of Mexico’s “pueblos magicos”……
There are three pyramids and Kinich-Kak-Moo is one of them (house of the sun). I climbed part of it, but with my fear of heights, it was just too much. The pyramid is around 22 mtrs. high! To go up is not the problem, but how to go down, when there is nobody to hold on to? Although???
Apart from that, the heat was intolerable; I kept on walking until around 2.00 p.m. and by that time I nearly fainted. I quickly entered the museum, in the hope it had air conditioning, but nothing, not even a washroom! I did get the opportunity to take some nice pictures.
The Papholchac is the other pyramid and the base of the church and convent. The third one is Itzamatul, also 22 mtrs. high.
Sunday was a perfect day to visit, as the bus arrived just before the Sunday church service started and outside on the Plaza, as well as inside in the market hall, lots of vendors were selling all kinds of stuff.
Around 3.00 p.m. I took the bus back to Merida and by the time we arrived in town, it started pouring. Orient station is on the worst spot in town, regarding water drainage. I had to wait for another hour before I could walk to the center of Merida and hop on the bus home. The water was just too high! Finally, most of us just went into the water, which was almost knee high and I had to ask the road three times, as I couldn’t recognize the streets anymore!
Today was another adventure in Mexico!
