For us, winter is when the maps come back out and the next adventure starts taking shape, even if it’s only in our imaginations for now. A good travel book is more than an escape; it’s a reminder that the world is still out there waiting, full of stories and possibilities.

Whether you’re craving a slow armchair wander through Provence, an epic trek across Patagonia, or a little philosophical musing on why we wander in the first place, these ten books will keep your wanderlust alive long after the kettle’s gone cold.

If you love discovering thoughtful, wanderlust filled stories, this roundup pairs beautifully with these read suggestions for winter travel, which explore even more authors who know how to turn cold days into journeys of their own.

Why Stories Keep Travelers Going

When you can’t be on the road, reading about travel is the next best thing. It fills that quiet space between trips, rekindling our curiosity and courage. We’ve learned so much from other travelers’ stories, not just where to go, but how to be.

Books remind us that adventure isn’t just about plane tickets and passports. It’s about perspective. They help us navigate the unknowns, stay inspired, and remember why we fell in love with travel in the first place.

So consider this your cozy, book fueled itinerary for the season ahead, best enjoyed with wool socks, a good blanket, and a notebook for planning where you’ll go next.

Travel Books to Spark Your Wanderlust

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen is a meditative journey through the Himalayas that explores loss, beauty, and the art of paying attention. Quiet, contemplative, and perfect for cold weather reflection.

Tracks by Robyn Davidson is an unforgettable solo journey across the Australian desert with only camels for company. Raw, brave, and beautifully written, the kind of story that makes you want to do something bold.

The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton makes you rethink what it means to wander. Few books capture the soul of exploration like The Art of Travel, where De Botton dives into why we travel, how anticipation shapes experience, and what we really bring home with us after a trip. It’s a reminder that travel isn’t just about where you go but how you see.

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle offers the perfect antidote to gray winter days. In A Year in Provence, he trades city life for the rhythms of a small French village, filling his days with long lunches, leaky roofs, and the joy of slowing down.

The Old Patagonian Express by Paul Theroux turns a train ride from Boston to Patagonia into a moving meditation on travel itself. It’s a reminder that the journey is often the real destination.

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin blends myth, mystery, and discovery through one of the world’s wildest landscapes. His writing is part travelogue, part legend, and pure adventure.

Wild by Cheryl Strayed follows a powerful path from grief to grit along the Pacific Crest Trail. You don’t need to hike thousands of miles to feel changed by this one.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac is a restless, poetic ode to freedom and youth that still captures the heartbeat of the open road. Best read when you’re feeling stuck and need a burst of courage to chase what’s next.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts is a practical guide to long term travel that inspired a generation of nomads. It’s full of wisdom on how to make travel a lifestyle, not a vacation.

The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer reminds us that the deepest journeys can happen without ever leaving home. It’s especially fitting for the quiet rhythm of winter.

How to Read Like a Traveler

Think of these books as stops along a single, meandering route. Switch between outward adventures and inner reflections to keep things balanced. Keep a notebook close, jot down the quotes that stir you, the destinations that call your name, and the lessons that stick.

By spring, your travel journal might already be full of plans, a shoulder season getaway, a train route to try, or maybe just a mindset shift toward slower, more intentional travel.

From Page to Passport

Reading about travel has a way of quietly reshaping how we see the world and how we plan our next trip. After A Year in Provence, maybe you’ll start lingering longer at the local market. After Tracks, you might take longer walks just to feel the edges of your endurance.

Literature, like travel itself, helps us edit our lives, trimming away the noise to make space for what lasts.

So this winter, while the snow piles up outside and the kettle goes cold, let a good travel story keep you warm. The world is not going anywhere, and when the thaw comes, you’ll be ready to meet it.

Your Turn

We would love to hear what’s on your winter reading list. Do you reach for travel memoirs that fuel your wanderlust, or stories that remind you to slow down and enjoy home? Share your favorite travel reads in the comments below, we’re always looking for new ones to add to our stack.

If you enjoyed this list, you might also like:

How to Slash Accommodation Costs and Travel the World as a Pet Sitter
How to Travel the World for Free Or Almost Free
Real Jobs That Let You Work and Travel

Grab a blanket, light a candle, and start reading. The next adventure might just begin on the page.

As a family that both reads and travels a lot, sometimes you need to make hard choices.

The sad reality is that it’s gotten almost impossible to carry real books with us. On our last trip, both of our kids read the entire Harry Potter series from start to finish. Can you imagine hauling around all seven of those books for three months through South America? No. Thank. You.

Thankfully, we have an Amazon Kindle for international travel and these days, each of us travels with our entire book collection on our e-readers.

We have an Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, and love it. You can see the Paperwhite on Amazon here.

Kindle Bundles !

I’m eyeing up these three Kindle Bundles options. Not only are you getting a Kindle at a great price but these bundles include covers, a kindle and an power adapter.

Kindle Paperwhite Essentials Bundle

Kindle Essential Bundle

Kindle Oasis Bundle with travel adaptor

Kindle vs tablet for international travel

We’re all about traveling light, so I struggled at first with bringing extra devices in our carry-on only for our family of four. However, once I spent some time using an ereader, I quickly began to prefer the Kindle to trying to read on my tablet or my smart phone.

I can have 1,000 plus books on a Kindle that weighs about the same as a deck of cards. I can also read as much as I want (the battery lasts weeks!) no matter where I am. Whether that’s on long-haul flights, waiting in the airport, sitting by the pool or even relaxing by the lake.

E-ink really does look like ink from a book and Kindle’s have a great selection of fonts I can choose from, including Kindle’s own exclusive Bookerly font. I can also easily increase or decrease the font size and spacing and everyone in the family enjoys setting up their devices the way they like them.

The Kindle Paperwhite is so much lighter than even our lightest tablet and is really easy to hold. I also don’t get distracted by email, Facebook, Netflix or any of the other million apps out there so I get more quality reading time in. A bonus is that I know that when the kids are reading they’re actually reading and not playing games or watching Youtube videos.

No glare to strain my eyes

I also like to spend a lot of time outdoors, and glare makes reading in sunlight or poolside almost impossible on a tablet. Reading in bright light poolside on the Kindle is effortless with its no-glare screen.

It doesn’t help that my family has a history of macular degeneration, so I want to avoid eye strain and blue light from computer screens as much as I can. With no glare or harsh light I don’t have to worry about eye strain with the Kindle. The Kindle is lit from the front, gently reflecting the light back to me.

That’s why it’s also great for night time reading. The Paperwhite has four built in LED lights with a front light that gently lights the surface of the display and doesn’t strain my eyes. Unlike the back-lit tablets that tire my eyes out quickly, I can read the Kindle for hours without tiring. Even with the built in lights fully on!

I even use the glow light when it’s not that dark, since it helps with visibility and doesn’t consume too much power. If you’ve never tried an e-book reader with a built in light, run, don’t walk to a store and get one. It’s literally night and day better!

High end screen

To me, the screen is probably the most important part of an e-reader. I spend a lot of time on my laptop working, or on my smartphone, and the last thing I need to do is stare at something else that strains my eyes. At 300 ppi, the resolution on my Kindle Paperwhite rivals any high end tablet or smart phone and the writing is clear and easy to read.

Not only is it easy to read but the Kindle display is very responsive to finger taps and swipes. I can easily change pages, highlight a word to check out or make an annotation.

Crazy long battery life

Seriously, the battery on the Paperwhite can last six weeks. Weeks! That’s based on half an hour a day of reading however it charges quickly (four hours) with a standard micro USB cable and your everyday Android or Apple charger. If the battery does die, you can plug it in for five minutes to give you about an hour of reading.

Kindle for international travel use

You can buy books in the Amazon Kindle Store if you live outside the United States and use a Kindle. Depending on the country you’re in, you may need to buy from an international Amazon Marketplace like Amazon Canada or Amazon UK. There’s more info on Amazon here.

Kindle with free 3G

I can’t talk about the Kindle for travel without mentioning the Kindle 3G. If you buy a Kindle with 3G, it comes with Wi-Fi and built-in FREE 3G wireless connectivity with coverage in more than 100 countries and territories.  You’ll pay a bit more, of course, but it may be a great option if you travel often without WiFi available. See the Kindle Paperwhite with 3G.

Tip: If 3G isn’t available in your location, you can always use standard built in Wi-Fi.

Where I get my Kindle books

The fastest way to get books on your Kindle is through Amazon’s Kindle store.  There are millions of books available, from best sellers to travel books (my favorite)! Be sure to check out the daily deals and price drops!

You can search and buy new books directly on your Kindle (via Wifi or 3g) or can browse on your computer, a tablet or your smart phone and get them sent directly to the device.

If you’re looking for a great deal, check out the free and low-cost books. There are some fantastic reads on there!

Go to the Kindle store. 

Free books with Amazon Prime

I’m seriously thinking about signing up for Amazon Prime just for the ebook bonuses.

Amazon Prime members can read as much as they want from over 1000 books, magazine, comics, Kindle singles plus more. It comes with a free 30 day trial. Some other great benefits include free shipping on over 50 million items, video streaming, and audio books with Audible.

Find out more about Amazon Prime here.

Love reading? Check out the Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans

If you’re a voracious reader, Amazon has a Kindle Unlimited Membership Plans.

Kindle Unlmitited comes in 6, 12 and 24 months memberships, and gives you:

• Unlimited reading from over 1 million ebooks
• Unlimited listening to thousands of audiobooks
• Read on any device

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The folks at Raincoast Books are working with us to give away a prize pack of two great Lonely Planet titles: Best in Travel 2016 and Wild Word.

Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2016

Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2016

This book’s all about the hottest travel trends and destinations for 2016. If anything will get your wanderlust fired up, it’s this book.

It’s even helpful for planning your travels in 2016; there are  35 events mapped out by month, plus 16 top travel lists.

You can buy Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2016 on Amazon or your local bookstore.

Lonely Planet’s Wild World

Lonely Planet’s Wild World is a formidable book.

At 256 pages, this book is has some good heft. It’s a true coffee table book at over 10″ x 14″.

Inside you’ll find some of Lonely Planet’s best photography of places that are just a little off the beaten path.

You can buy Lonely Planet’s Wild World on Amazon.

Want to win your own copies of Best in Travel 2016 and Wild World?

So how do you enter? It’s easy.

See the Rafflecopter widget at the top of this page?

Just go to the Rafflecopter form at the top of this page and enter your name and email, or log in with Facebook.

The contest runs from midnight (PSE) November 30, 2015 to midnight (PST) Dec 9, 2015. The giveaway is open to residents of Canada only, excluding Quebec, aged 18 or over. The winner will be contacted via email.

The winner will get a copy of these two books!

• Lonely Planet’s Wild World
• Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2016

Best of luck!

Raincoast books supplied us with copies of the books for our personal use and the giveaway. As usual, all opinions are our own. This contest is open to Canadian residents only, excluding Quebec. 

Check out these ideas for ultra last minute gifts for your favorite travel lover.

Go Digital, Think Tech

Tech is almost always a great last minute gift for travelers and digital gifts can be bought quickly online and sent to anyone anywhere in the world.

A digital gift subscription to Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime are all great ways for travelers to get their fill of their favorite TV shows and movies on the road.

Amazon Prime not only lets travelers instantly stream thousands of movies and TV shows, but it also has a few extra perks for travelers, including borrowing a book for free each month from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, and free two day shipping on most items.

An Apple iTunes gift card or a Google Play gift card is also pretty much a no-fail gift. Though it doesn’t win any bonus points for originality anyone glued to their mobile phones or tablets will definitely appreciate them.

Travel apps are also a great way to please your travel lover: Check out this list of some of our favorite, must-have travel apps to get you started.

And did you know that you can easily gift an app directly from your Apple device using your account? Here’s Apple’s guide to sending an app to another user. All you need is their email address. For Google Play you still need to purchase a giftcard however they’re now available internationally so finding one shouldn’t be very difficult. You can find a list of countries you can purchase a Google Play card here.

Get Their Book On

Books and travel go hand in hand. The good news is that e-Readers like the Kindle Paperwhite  make it easy as pie to pick up a digital e-book as an ultra last minute gift for your traveler.

Here are a few sure fire picks:

Not a lot of people know about the Traveler’s Handbook series. These are books written by some of the best travel bloggers in their niche, and each one is packed full of great advice.

Fellow travel blogger Jodi Ettenberg’s wonderful Food Traveler’s Handbook is perfect for the traveling foodie.

The Solo Travelers Handbook by Janice Leith Waugh would make a great gift for a traveler heading out on their own. There’s even a Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook, a Career Break Traveler’s Handbook, a Cruise Traveler’s Handbook, a Luxury Traveler’s Handbook, a Family Traveler’s Handbook, and an Adventure Travelers Handbook.

While we’re on books, Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts is probably one of the most iconic travel books out there. It’s a great read about long term travel that’s chock full of practical advice.

If your traveler is the practical sort, the new book by Matt Kepnes (aka travel blogger Nomadic Mat) called How to Travel The World for $50 a Day gets great reviews on Amazon.

How to Live a Life of Travel by Derek Earl Baron (aka travel blogger Wandering Earl) is a solid choice as well, both for inspiration and for some real nuts and bolts travel advice.

Take a tour

If your travel lover’s the type who enjoys tours, buying a tour through a well-known company like Viator or G Adventures is a great choice.

G Adventures and Viator are well known companies that offer tours for almost any destination you can think of. If your traveler has a home base, a tour close to home can be a great gift too.

Get Philanthropic

There are a lot of fantastic travel-related charities out there, and a donation to one would make a great gift for the philanthropic traveler.

We like Heifer International (which provides gifts of livestock and training to those in need), Kiva.org (which gives micro loans to individuals in developing nations), and Nothing But Nets (which provides mosquito nets for children in areas with malaria).

Still stumped? What about the obvious?

You knew we were going to go here, and really we have to. If you’re looking for a truly last minute gift, a gift certificate is a quick choice.

And if you put a little thought into it, you can get yourself some great brownie points for a carefully chosen gift, even if you buy a gift certificate. The key here is to think about what your travel lover wants.

The nicest part about gift certificates is that they can be found everywhere from the corner store to every major big box store. Our local grocery literally has a wall of them for seemingly every store across Canada.

If you’re a little stumped on which gift on to get, Amazon.com has done some of the work for you and come up with a good list of travel gear and gadgets, and there’s always the option of an Amazon gift card so your traveler can buy whatever he or she likes.

Outside the gift box

If your traveler isn’t into the material things but you want to help further their travels, here’s a few extra ideas.

Did you know you can even buy flights online? Expedia is a great place to look for baseline fares and getting them accommodation through Expedia, Booking.com or Airbnb is a great choice too.

Looking for a great deal on your next Airbnb? Click on this link to get a $35 USD credit if you sign up with a new email (and we get a credit, too).

LivingSocial, known for finding a good deal, is an option that many people don’t think about as well. You can sometimes find amazing travel deals here.

Do you have any other ultra last minute gift ideas for travelers? We’d love to hear them!

Above photo by Daniela Olivia Avina on Flickr.

The email was from Adam Shepard asking us to review his latest book, One Year Lived.

His first book, Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream, was partly a response to Barbara Ehrenreich’s controversial Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.

In Scratch Beginnings, Shepard’s set out to prove that he could start from almost nothing and have a working automobile, live in a furnished apartment and have $2500 in cash within a year. Where Ehrenreich failed, supposedly showing that those with limited financial resources are doomed to live in an endless cycle of poverty, Shepard succeeded in creating a successful life in one short year.

It’s an interesting premise, and landed Adam attention from the likes of NPR, The Today Show and CNN.

Fast forward a couple of years, and Adam’s email about his new book, One Year Lived, landed in our inbox.

In One Year Lived, Adam chronicles his year trip around the world. The book describes his experiences mustering cattle in the Australian Outback, bullfighting, volunteering with children in Honduras and meeting the love of his life.

It’s an interesting read as a travelogue, following the story of a self-deprecating young man on a trip around the world. Here, he describes bungee jumping in Slovakia.

“One of the guys says to me in broken English: “Just in case line break and you not stop before ground, we really enjoy know you.”

… Screw it. I take a final, lingering look over at Ivana, her expression cheery  and supportive. I spread my arms out wide above my head. I bend my knees. I rise up off of my toes. I curl my head down over the rest of my body. I dive. I soar. An exhilarated shriek explodes through my lips, prying at my clenched jaw. The world opens up. My pulse pounds even harder. I’m dropping. I’m flying. The forest widens, widens, widens—a sea of spiky green spreading beneath me. The fall lasts a day, a week, a month. Three-point-two-five seconds.”

But it’s the bigger themes that Shep (Adam’s nickname) touches on that make the book worth reading.

In the book, he muses, “How does a person muster the courage—or recklessness—to put it all to the side for a year? To shelve responsibility? Alongside heaps of motivation—new places, new experiences, new foods—why does one decide to go and another doesn’t? Whether escaping the mundane or chasing excitement, why do some people talk about their dream to do something anomalous and others actually do it?”

It’s a fantastic question.

What makes one person decide to take a chance, and travel around the world for a year, while another decides to stay at home and forgo that opportunity?

One of my regrets is not traveling earlier in my life. I was was close to 30 when Charles and I set out on our first year long adventure. Why didn’t I go before that? For all the reasons Adam says: I was comfortable, I wanted to go to school, and honestly, I didn’t even know where to begin.

Maybe the reason some people just take off (and why I finally mustered the courage at 30) is something like this (again in Shep’s words), “This—right now, today—this is our time to live, yours and mine. Quality years ahead, presumably, and we’ve already had some great experiences, met some great people, and created some great memories.”

It’s really about an understanding that life is short, that the opportunity that you pass by may never come back again. We’ve written posts on 10 reasons to travel right now, and Shep’s written an entire book filled with reasons why you should travel if it’s your dream.

Why did Shep go? In his words… ”

“I wasn’t angry. I didn’t hate my job. I wasn’t annoyed with capitalism, and I was indifferent to materialism. I wasn’t escaping emptiness, nor was I searching for meaning. I have great friends and a wonderful family. The dude two doors down invited me over for steak or pork chops—my choice—one Sunday, and I couldn’t even tell you the first letter of his name. Most of my teeth are natural. … I felt as if I was a few memories short, as if there was still time for me to go out there and get missing for a little while. Bust out the List o’ Good Times, sell my car, store my crap, stuff a backpack, buy a small mountain of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and hop on a plane. Just this once.”

Sound interesting?

You can find out more about Adam on the One Year Lived website, or on his Facebook page.

Disclosure: We weren’t paid to write this review (though we’re not above it, just in case J. K. Rowling’s looking for reviewers for her new book), though we did get a digital copy of Adam’s book to read.

New luggage

Is your Mom still toting around the same tired luggage? Maybe it’s time for an upgrade.

Our picks – The Travelpro Luggage Maxlite 2 20″ Expandable Spinner is small enough to fit into an airline’s carry on and gets great reviews on Amazon.com.

If your Mom’s more into backpacking, the Eagle Creek Rincon 65L, made with a smaller frame great for female travelers, is a good start. I’m still using the older version of this model, which I picked up over 10 years ago.

Smartphone

Now, you’d have to love your mother a lot (or have a pretty flush bank account) to pony up for a new iPhone or Droid, but there’s no arguing that a smartphone is a great travel gift.

Smartphone apps are fantastic for all sorts of travel tasks, from checking the weather (we like The Weather Channel) to checking flights (we like the Skyscanner app) and booking hotels (we love the Booking.com app).

Click here to search Skyscanner

Our pick – A shiny new iPhone 5. If the newest iPhone’s a bit too expensive for you, the older generation Apple iPhone 4S is still a great phone, and I love the whopping 5.5 “display Android Samsung Galaxy Note II.

A night away from it all

A night’s stay in a cushy hotel will win you points from almost any Mom. Depending on her likes and your budget, you can go with a stay in a world class inner city hotel, a luxury resort in the Caribbean, or just a night in her hometown.

The gift of helping others

There are some wonderful international charities that aim to help others around the world. Don’t forget to make the donation in your Mom’s name.

Our picks – We like Heifer International (which provides gifts of livestock and training to those in need), Kiva.org (which gives micro loans to individuals in developing nations), and Nothing But Nets (which provides mosquito nets for children in areas with malaria).

Quick drying clothing

Travel clothing these days is truly amazing. You can get rugged, attractive clothes that dry in almost an instant.

Our picks – Well, they may not be the sexiest things on the planet, but these Patagonia Women’s Hipsters quick drying underwear get great reviews. And, if buying your Mom underwear just isn’t in the cards, the Patagonia Re-Tool Snap-T Pull Over Fleece Jacket is a great option.

Waterproof camera

The new generation of rugged, waterproof cameras are a great addition to any travelers toolkit. They’re rugged enough to withstand a drop from around 5 feet and take great photos and videos underwater, and most can take great 1080p video.

Our picks – We like the Canon PowerShot D20 (our review here) and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS4 (we review the DMC-TS4 here).

Books for the traveling soul

If your budget won’t quite reach to a camera or a trip, books are almost always a great option. Here are a few picks to get you started:

Eat. Pray. Love. Perhaps the obvious option for Mother’s Day, Elisabeth Gilbert’s book is a fun, light read. Also available as a movie starring Julia Roberts.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac is a classic travel tome. If this doesn’t get your Mom’s wanderlust up and running, not much will.

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel. Written by Rolf Potts, a great read about long term travel that’s chock full of practical advice.

Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. Mayes buys and abandoned villa in Italy, and learns to love the simplicity of rural Italian life. The book was made into a movie starring Diane Lane and Sandra Oh.

Still stumped?

Amazon.com has done some of the work for you, and come up with a list of travel gear and gadgets, and there’s always the option of a gift card so she can buy whatever she likes.

Happy Mother’s day!

Not only is there a wealth of history and architecture in Merida but it’s also a stone’s throw from the port and beaches of Progreso and Celestun, the lovely yellow city of Izamal and the Mayan ruins of Dzibilchaltún and Uxmal.

I took these photos on an afternoon walk around Merida Centro’s Santiago neighborhood. On the outside, many of these houses look rundown, but a look inside often reveals renovated interiors and sparkling appliances. In other casas, little has changed in the past 200 hundred years, as walls crumble and paint peels.

Behind every door and window is a story.

Who lives behind these walls?

A grandmother standing in her kitchen, with her extended family crowding the house and children running everywhere? A new expat, carefully choosing paint colors and tiles to match her newest renovation? Maybe one of Merida’s talented artists, whose studio bulges with paints and canvas? A chef who opens his doors a few nights a week to help pay the bills?

+

More about Merida

The Essential Guide to Living in Merida 2012

This is a fantastic book, packed with everything from insider’s tips on the best days to visit local parks and markets to info on gardening in Merida’s dry climate.

Yucatán’s Magic – Mérida Side Trips: Treasures of Mayab

This book shines in its focus on off the beaten path side trips throughout the Yucatan. Packed with great ideas, this book is a great guide to the real Yucatan that exists outside of packaged vacations and tourist resorts.

How do I get there? Merida is a major center, with an international airport. Buses come to Merida from Cancun and Playa del Carmen almost every hour on the hour.

Where should I stay? We loved our stay in a colonial home in Merida’s historic center, booked through home rental site Airbnb.

Looking for a great deal on your next Airbnb? Follow our link to get a $35 credit! (And we get a credit, too).

In this small town in Mexico, the Franciscan convent San Antonio de Padua claims the largest atrium in the Americas (only the Vatacan is said to be larger). San Antonio de Padua was visited by the Pope in 1993, and countless numbers have walked under its archways overlooking the city plaza since it was built in 1553.

But underneath all of that history is something even older.

San Antonio de Padula itself is built upon the flattened top of the great Mayan pyramid that held the sanctuary of the god Itzam Na. The Mayans were here thousands of years before the first stone was laid on the convent.

Today’s Izamal would be but a tiny suburb of the ancient, sprawling Mayan city.

Little remains of what the Mayans built here. Bishop Fray Diego de Landa burned Izamal’s Mayan libraries and writings in the 1500s. Mayan artifacts are now scattered all over the globe, in European museums and in private collections. Remains of the Mayan world peek up through the modern town as grass-covered mounds (likely unrestored Mayan structures), reminders of so much lost and forgotten.

The Mayan structures that remain are large but less impressive than ruins like Chichen Itza or even Tulum. Kinich Kakmó, though a remarkable 656 by 591 feet (the Great Pyramid of Giza is 756 feet at its base), looks like not much more than a stepped hill today. The Mayan sites in Izamal are not reconstructed, unlike at Chitzen Iza, and few tourists visit the ruins comparatively.

So we return to the yellow city. The monastery and colonial buildings in the town are all painted a yellow that reflects the dazzling sun, which is fitting as the Mayans considered this site to be the abode of Kinichkakmo, a manifestation of the sun god.

Bells ring in San Antonio de Padua, calling worshipers to mass.

We take refuge from Kinichkakmo’s baking rays under the shade of a calesa, a horse drawn cart that still serves as an alternative mode of transportation around town. The calasas are decorated with colorful flowers, with some even sporting accessories for the horses.

The horses wait in the hot sun beside the mission. But our driver is gentle with his horse, taking the time to tell us her name (Salina), and guiding her forward with a deft flick of the reins.

On the way out of Izamal, we brave the baking heat for a peek at the back side of San Antonio de Padula. From the rear San Antonio de Padula is surprisingly large, and devoid of earthy ochre paint that marks Izamal.

Next to the mission, in the leafy plaza, vendors ply cut up fruit and ice cream, while Mayan craftsmen sell handmade hammocks and clothing, with surprisingly few of the kitschy items found anywhere tourists congregate.

A last peek inside the monastery reveals more, hidden by time.  A few years ago, a worker scrubbing the mission walls discovered 16th century frescos that were whitewashed over sometime in the past, for reasons unknown. The woman in this photo may be the virgin of Izamel, but that knowledge, like so much in Izamal, is lost to time.

How to get here: Izamal is about 50 miles east of Merida, the Yucatan’s capital city. If you rent a car, it’s an easy one hour drive on well paved roads from Merida.

Fascinated by Mayan History? More Reading

A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya
Written by Linda Schele and David Freidel, who played a major role in recent efforts to interpret Mayan hieroglyphs. Detailed and a bit dry for a casual read, this is a wealth of information that rates highly on Amazon.

Yucatan Before and After the Conquest (Native American)

This is the English translation of the 1566 work “Relacion de las cosas de Yucatan,” by Bishop Diego de Landa, the friar responsible for burning many of the Mayan libraries in Izamal. This book was written after de Landa’s forced return to Spain, as a sort of self-justification for his actions in what is now Mexico. In the introduction, translator William Gates (no, not that Bill Gates), argues that this book only represents about 1% of what de Landa destroyed in his time in the Yucatan.