See all our photos from the Puerto Chiapas.
Puerto Chiapas (Tapachula), Mexico is located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, in the state of Chiapas. It is situated on the Gulf of Tehuantepec, near the border with Guatemala. Our original plan was to just hang out near the port but we were invited by friends on the ship to join them for a tour of the city of Tapachula, visit some Mayan ruins, and see how chocolate is made in the traditional method by hand.
Our tour had 10 people from the ship and cost $50/person. Only about 4 ships a month call on Puerto Chiapas so the tourist infrastructure is definitely lacking. It took just over 30 minutes to drive from the port to Tapachula, a large city of about 250,000 people (someone on the tour googled and it is the 85th largest city in all of Mexico.
Tapachula is a gritty city with not much to see but the main attraction is the central plaza to see a church built in 1821, the original City Hall, now a museum, and then some stained glass windows in the new city hall.
Our next stop was a small site of Mayan ruins, this was about a 30 minute driver through town and into the country side. This was not a city but a religious site for offerings to the Gods.
Our final stop was a small house where the woman who owned it has won international awards for handmaking chocolate. She takes the cocoa pods, dries them in the sun for 5 days, roasts them over a fire for 45 minutes, then hand grinds with a stone before mixing with sugar and cinnamon.
