Day 10 Puerto Chiapas, Mexico

Our last port in Mexico is Puerto Chiapas.  The dock area is lovely.  Two huge thatched roofed buildings are the dominant feature.  Inside one is many privately owned shops selling everything from Coffee to Jade.  The other building is a giant bar area with a very inviting swimming pool within its perimiter.  We noticed that the staff, who were lucky enough to have the day off , made a bee-line for this place.

The port of Puerto Chiapas

We, along with another Aussie couple, decided to take a taxi into the town of Tapachula.  This was apparently where all the photo opportunities lay.  It was approximately 40km into the town and our non-english taxi driver was to take us to the town centre , let us roam around, and then we were to find him again so that he could bring us back to the ship.  

When we arrived in the town centre one look told us that this was not a place to wander around.  Although there is a strong military presence I just don’t think we would have felt safe from pick-pockets.  So we asked our driver to just keep driving.  We were not greatly impressed with Tapachula. It has a population of over 300,000 people so you can imagine how crowded the roads and sidewalks are.

Military Presence on the Streets of Tapachula

The sound of the Marimba is everywhere

The town centre

Now.....this is a speed bump.  I will never complain again about our Aussie ones!

Puerto Chiapas is very close to the border with Guatemala and another reason why there is such a huge military presence.  There was a military ship patrolling up and down where we, and the Holland America Ship were docked, the whole time we were in port.  It is a shame that we only hear about the bad things, i.e. drug running, that happen in this country because Mexico certainly has been a lovely place to visit and one that we would come back to in a heart beat.

Breakfast this morning. Every thing you order is accompanied by fried potatoes, capsicum and onion!

Back on board we had a light lunch because we had decided that we would eat Italian tonight and everyone knows how filling that can be.  We also incorporated quite a bit of exercise today because both of us are complaining of expanding waistbands!