Near the border of Guatemala on Mexico’s Pacific coast is Puerto Chiapas.  Puerto Chiapas is the port for the city of Tapachula.  Tapachula is a city of 200,000 people and the port built in 1975 handles industrial cargo and the tourist trade.  The tourist facility is nice with a great restaurant overlooking the port.  We took a tour to the ancient ruins of Izapa.  From its beginnings as a small village sometime around 1500 BCE, Izapa grew into the region’s most influential cultural and commercial center with a population of possibly up to 10,000 people. After Izapa we went to the Chocolate City, I don’t think that’s the name of the city but that’s what the tour wanted you to believe.  But we did see the cocoa beans made into chocolate.  It was an amazing process that the ladies perform in the home.  I have trouble with fudge!!  The local girls did a few native dances for us before we headed back to the port.  Tapachula is very hot and humid so we had to sample some of the local beer at the port side café before getting back on the ship.  Next stop Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala.