Best of Tuxtla Gutiérrez

Parque Marimba [1]: Shake a leg and enjoy live marimba music every night of the week at this small but exceptionally lovely city park, just a few blocks from Tuxtla Gutiérrez’s central square. By day it’s shady and peaceful, with plenty of quiet corners for relaxing with a book.

ZOOMAT [2]: Considered by many to be Latin America’s best zoo, Tuxtla’s ZOOMAT has large leafy enclosures and only houses animals found in Chiapas. Every mammal species in the state is represented here, including jaguars, tapirs, otters, and armadillos, plus numerous birds, reptiles, and other creatures.

Parque Nacional Cañón del Sumidero [3]: Take a boat ride from Chiapa de Corzo through this winding river gorge, whose walls are a whopping thousand meters (0.6 mile) high in places, with wispy waterfalls forming mossy patterns on the steep face. It’s an easy day trip from San Cristóbal or Tuxtla Gutiérrez.

Sima de las Cotorras [4]: Almost perfectly circular and deep enough to hide a 45-story building, this massive sima, or sinkhole, is all the more impressive for the prehistoric paintings on a ledge halfway up its sheer stone walls, not to mention the thousands of parrots that nest in trees on the sunken floor.

El Aguacero [5]: At the end of a long dirt road, at the bottom of a steep canyon walkway, and down a tangled riverside path, El Aguacero is worth the effort: a picturesque waterfall falling in dozens of rivulets from a long ledge, blown into a misty cloud by the wind.

La Pila [6]: Built in the 16th century using specially designed bricks, this huge public fountain in Chiapa de Corzo has flying buttresses and ornate designs, and is considered one of the finest examples of Mudejar colonial architecture in the state.