Izamal - The Jello City

Our last stop of the day was the small town of Izamal, affectionately referred to as the jello city because of it’s color. Well, at least that’s what I thought our guide was saying. All day I was expecting to see the purple, orange, yellow and green colors you find in jello. But when we arrived, I was surprised to see everything was yellow…. ok, stop giggling, I kept hearing jello!

This town is known for its most famous guest, Pope John Paul II, who visited the Convento de San Antonio de Padua in 1993. The towns people were so excited, they painted the entire city yellow, and it remains that way today. The convent is still active, however, the doors are closed due to Covid and only open for mass. It is a huge complex but we don’t know how many actually live there.

There is a ruin in the middle of town that guests can climb and look out at the vast expanse on all sides. We asked if this originally was a good vantage point to see potential intruders, but learned the under growth is so thick, an enemy could approach without ever being seen until the last minute. However, the locals often refer to the tall ruins as mountains since their entire country is flat.