A Side Trip to Chocolate Plantations & The Ruins of Comalcalco
Eighty kilometers (50 miles) from Villahermosa is Comalcalco, the only pyramid site in Mexico made of kilned brick. This site will be of interest to the hard-core Maya freaks, but it isn't as stunning as Palenque or the picturesque ruins of the Río Bec region. If you have a car, you can get there in an hour, but be prepared for a lack of good directional signs. You'll have to ask directions when you get to the town of Comalcalco. If you don't have a car, you can take a taxi, which will run $50 to $60 (£25-£30) to get you there and back with time to see the place. Or you can take a bus to the town of Comalcalco, and a taxi from there. ADO runs first-class buses twice daily. From the town of Comalcalco, the ruins are 3km (2 miles) away. This part of Tabasco is cacao-growing country, where you can visit plantations and factories to see the cacao from the pod on the tree to the finished chocolate bars.
The fastest route from Villahermosa is Highway 180 west to a new (and, as far as I could tell, unnumbered) highway that leads to Cunduacán. The turnoff is clearly marked, but if you miss it, you can continue to Cárdenas and take Highway 187 north.
Comalcalco is a busy agricultural center and market town. The ruins of Comalcalco are about 3km (2 miles) on the same highway past the town; watch for signs to the turnoff on the right. Park in the lot and pay admission at the visitor center by the museum. The museum, with many pre-Hispanic artifacts, is small but interesting and worth the 20 minutes or so it takes to see it. Unfortunately, all the descriptions are in Spanish. It presents a history of the people who lived here, the Putún/Chontal Maya. They were traders, spoke Mayan dialect, and were believed to have founded, or at least greatly influenced, Chichén Itzá.
This city had an extension of 7 sq. km (2 3/4 sq. miles), but the site contains only the ceremonial center, comprising an expansive plaza bordered by pyramidal structures and an acropolis with the remains of a palace and some ceremonial structures, probably funerary temples. This city reached its height during the Classic period, A.D. 300 to 900. Of the pyramids around the plaza, one has been fully excavated. A carpet of grass grows over others, with partial excavation here and there. These pyramids were made of compacted earth with brick facing, in some places covered in stucco. To the south of the plaza and above it is the acropolis, a complex of temples and palace rooms that sits well above the plaza. There you will find a couple of structures with carvings and molded stucco with scenes of Maya royalty. There are only a few. Workers had cordoned off a couple of the structures in this complex when I was last there, and I'm not sure whether they will be open soon. Because of the fragile nature of these ruins, there are many NO SUBIR ("no climbing") signs warning visitors against scaling particular structures. But there is one path with arrows that leads you up to the palace where you have a good view of the whole site. You can make out the remains of a double vault and a colonnaded chamber that were the principal chambers of this palace. Seeing the ruins takes an hour or so. Admission is $3.50 (£1.75), and the site is open daily from 8am to 5pm.
