What is Tabasco known for?
Throughout history, Tabasco, Mexico served as the most important trade route during the Mayan era. In 1519, Hernán Cortés defeated the Chontal Maya and founded the town of Santa María de la Victoria, which was subsequently attacked and pirated. In 1596, the city moved to its current location and was renamed "Villahermosa de San Juan Bautista".
Despite gaining independence, Tabasco, Mexico remained underdeveloped and divided. The French invasion in 1862 brought some unity but met with fierce resistance from the local population. During the reign of Porfirio Diaz, Tabasco failed to industrialise, and after the revolution, the state depended on cocoa and banana cultivation.
The region’s oil, discovered in the 1930s but not fully exploited until the 1970s, provided the impetus to bring Tabasco into the modern world. It enabled capital to be invested in the agricultural sector and Villahermosa to be transformed into the cultural centre it is today.
Villaheromsa - the capital city of the region
As Graham Greene pointed out when he travelled through Tabasco in the 1930s, Villahermosa doesn’t necessarily live up to the name “beautiful city”. But while Tabasco’s capital may not be the most aesthetically pleasing place, it has some fascinating attractions that you’re likely to have all to yourself.
The highlight is Parque La Venta, which displays relics from the Olmec site of the same name amid a jungle teeming with birds and butterflies and echoing with jaguar growls (which emanate from the adjacent wildlife park). Along with the sculptures, altars and tombs are a series of giant basalt heads for which the Olmecs – the mother culture of Mesoamerica – are famous.
Villahermosa is also the best spot to sample Tabasqueño cuisine, which is rich in tropical fruits and freshwater fish. Keep an eye out for the local super-sweet pineapples, the tasty pejelagarto fish (which is generally barbecued and served with a fiery sauce), and horchata de coco, a rice-milk drink spiked with coconut.