Tapachula
Tapachula de Córdova y Ordóñez or simply Tapachula is a city of 197,000 people in Chiapas.
Get in
By plane
Aeromexico flies to Tapachula from Mexico City three times daily.
By car
By bus
There are plenty of buses going to Mexico City, Oaxaca, Tuxtla Gutierrez among others. Also, Tapachula is a good connection point between Guatemala and Mexico with plenty of buses going to Guatemala City.
By boat
Get around
See
If you have free time in tapachula head out of town a little to calle miguel hidalgo (the one out near calle semanarista) and check out the crocadile zoo. A quirky little backyard business that houses something like 50 crocs and aligators of various species and sizes. the family that runs it is friendly and as much as seeing the crocs themselves it´s funny to watch small children chase an even smaller puppy around a backyard litteraly packed with ferocius reptiles in various cement and chainlink enclosures. Cost is M$25 per person and a cab should cost about M$25 each way.
Museo Regional. A small museum that has a collection of Mayan artifacts from the region.
Learn
The first human settlements of the peoples that later developed into the Mayan civilization have been found on the northern Pacific coast of what is now Guatemala. However, southern Chiapas state in Mexico and Guatemala were historically a unified whole.
One archaeological site of note, Izapa, is 10 kilometers from Tapachula. In addition, the Museo Archaeologico del Soconusco is located in the center of Tapachula in the same building that houses the tourist information center and the Casa de Cultura.
A tour of Mayan archaeological sites in western Guatemala and southwest Chiapas is available. These sites include: Izapa, Iximche, Zacalueu, Tenam Puente, and Chinkultic.
Buy
Eat
Budget
Mid-range
Splurge
Sr. tango located about five blocks from the main plaza (miguel hidalgo) Sr. tango is an argentinian steak house that also has bland tasting pizzas and carries a real old school mafia air to the place. Salads are pretty good and the air conditioning is top notch if you need to escape the heat.
Drink
Open Wednesday through Saturday nights, the ambiance at 19 Dias y 500 Noches, the local piano bar, is wonderful. The live music on Friday and Saturday nights begins at 9pm and goes on into the night.
Sleep
Budget
If you´re on a budget, Tapachula has very affordable lodgings. One example is Hotel Tacana (8a Norte at 13a Poniente). The rooms go for as little as M$100 per night and many have been newly renovated.
Located a block and a half from the main plaza in town (miguel Hidalgo), on 5a calle pointe, one of the cheaper places to stay is Hotel Quinta instantly recognizable by its astonishingly large sign that says ¨hotel¨ in black and white vertical letters.
The lowest budget rooms go for M$200 with no television and no air conditioning. Rooms are a little dirty and toilets have no toilet seats but you can't beat the price in this part of town.