Thanksgiving in Izamal

For Thanksgiving, we treated ourselves to a vacation and went to one of the prettiest little cathedral towns in the Yucatan. I won't give you the history as you can google Izamal or Yucatan Today and get more and better information than I can give you. Isn't retirement great when we can take a holiday from vacation?

On our way we passed hennequin plantations--the most important plant of the region. It's grown to make sisal, now most often used in hammocks, but not so much the rope as it was in the past.

We passed a cemetery someplace between Merida and Izamal.

I wouldn't mind being buried here. The place seems friendly and human. The little houses are about as tall as I am. The streets are swept and the houses (tombs) nicely painted. There are benches for visitors and street lights for nightime.

We got to Izamal and found our B&B set in a great tropical graden with casitas for rooms located throughout the grounds. The one below was ours. Oddly, it was decorated inside with southwest themes--Kokopelis, saguaro cactus, and branding irons.

Oscar, the parrot, whose large cage borders the dining room/lobby, was always ready for handouts.

The Yucatecan ladies, especially those about my age, often wear traditional dress.

Izamal street.

Door on east ramp up to the church.








Kent on the east ramp up to the church with the ceiling of the cloister above.

Man walking, seen from above.

Door at end of east cloister.

West cloister.

Church towers amidst TV aerials and water tanks.

Front entrance.

The church (Convento de Izamal) was begun by Franciscans in 1553 over the site of a Mayan pyramid and many of the Mayan stones were used in its construction.

There are several other pyramids still fairly intact in Izamal. Enough that every neighborhood has its own.

We visited the artesan museum where modern craftsmen from around all of Mexico display their interpretations of traditional themes.

Fridas from Frida's paintings in clay.

La Katrina--a paper mache, larger-than-life death figure. If you've been keeping up with the blog, you've seen her before with Kent at the Xalapa archeological museum's coffee shop.

I do like the Mexican approach to death--cheerful and funny and fearless.

Old Women in Izamal.

I wish the light had been better here, but this fruit seller at the market was in a shady corner. I've had to adjust the picture, unmercifully, in PhotoShop to bring out her features. If I had more nerve as a photographer, I would ask these women to pose and pay a fee. I find them immensely handsome.

A sadder woman.

And La Gringa awaiting her Thanksgiving Day dinner.