Tapachula, Mexico

The port is very nice but the city about 14 miles away.

If you look to the left of the picture above that blue shading, the background is a volcano.  Our guide later told us that was one of the top 5 active volcanos in the world.

Above you see the cruise port but also the commercial side.  Every cargo container is for Chiquita Banana.  This area supplies a lot of bananas for the company.  There are gigantic fields of banana palms.

Tapachula is capital of the Chiapas region (like a state) of Mexico.  This area is right next to Guatemala. When we stopped at the ruins, we were less than 3 miles from Guatemala. Scary!  
 ​
Today, we will be visiting one of the Aztec city centers and temple. The ruins are of the city of Izapa.  Only about 1/4 of the city is exposed to tourists.  Almost the entirety of the rest of the city was developed as farms or homes.  The ruins were only recently discovered and unearthed.  Izapa was a city from 1,500 BC to 1,200 AD by the Aztecs and Olmecs. 

​We have had great busses on every one of our excursions so far.

The walls of Izapa are in very good shape.  It is easy to get the feeling that the Aztecs had just moved away.

There were several examples of water channels that they used to direct water where needed.  Soft rocks were carved to make the channels and basins to dip water.  Only a few have survived but these channels were miles long originally and spread water from rivers to fields.

There were several carvings though most were difficult to see dry. Tourists are no longer allowed to wet the stones, but our tour guide did have a picture taken with "special cameras" to get the finest details.

A section was dedicated to a ball game.  Our guide described the game which involved a ball and sounded a lot like socker with one big exception.  The captain of the winning team is sacrificed to their gods.  This is considered an honor.

The highest point on the temple is aligned with the nearby volcano. 

On our return to the ship, we stopped to tour part of Tapachula. This included a museum and church.

The tour was great but Mexico so different from the US.  Everywhere we stopped the police are present and carrying loaded machine guns.  Our tour guide warned us to stay with the group and if we explored on our own, he would not be responsible.  As I expected, most of Mexico is very poor.  Most homes look more like shacks than houses.  The houses are surrounded by fences and barbed wire.  It was disturbing.  The city was very busy which is expected as the capital of the region.

The power run in the city is insane.  I would guess the accidents and power outages are common.

Well, it seems that you can find some stores anywhere.  The tour guide made sure to point out these stores.

He also wanted to point out a "church" building.  More like cult.

At the city center was a park, museum, and church.  In the museum, there was a demonstration of a traditional native dance.

This was a billboard in town.  $190 Pecos for 8 pieces of chicken, two fries, and two Cole slaw (I guess).  That would be about $9 in dollars. I don't know why I found this interesting.

Back to the ship after the tour.

We watched the sunset from the Crow's Nest as we pulled out of port.