An entire village in the Yucatan was painted a golden yellow in 1993 to honor the visit of Pope John Paul II. Kevin and I had the pleasure to visit Izamal this week and we are still smiling about how this entire town in the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula achieved this yellow hue.

The color begins on the outskirts of town; it is mostly an ochre shade of yellow and now over 25 years old. Some buildings must have been given a fresh coat but many have a vintage look to them.

We had an amazing lunch at Kinich. “When you step inside to the spacious restaurant, you will feel as if you were in a grand casona, with plants, open-air palapa-roofed terrazas, art on the walls, and family heirlooms on display.” There didn’t appear to be a menu and we didn’t really didn’t know what food would appear but I was able to say filete and Kevin would have pok chuk, a Mayan grilled pork. We wandered around and peek into the tortilla and grill room, where two Maya women are busy shaping and grilling fresh tortillas, and cooking up some marinated chicken, pork, or other delicacy. We also sipped on the local drink called agua de chaya, maybe a bit tastier than our kale green drinks.

After lunch we toured the cathedral that was built on the ruins of a Mayan temple. The town is surrounded with other hills or ruins as we saw on our caleza ride, a little horse drawn carriage. Our horse did not want to wear his pink sun hat and so I pleaded with our driver to forgo the hat. As we passed one yellow building after another we could not help but look at each other and crack up with laughter, and we couldn’t help but wonder how in 1993 this all happened. We kept thinking of a funny movie we had seen by a Uruguayan filmmaker called El Baño Del Papa, The Pope’s Toilet, about the flurry of activity in preparing for a visit from the pope. We suddenly could picture the yellow paint appearing and the joy of the town in being chosen for this visit.

“Unfortunately, it needs to be said that the richness of your culture has not always been duly appreciated, and neither were your rights as people and peoples always respected,” the Pope said.

We will never see anything like Izamal again.