4 Best Sights in Villahermosa, Chiapas and Tabasco

Giant stone heads and other carvings were salvaged from the oil fields at La Venta, on Tabasco's western edge near the state of Veracruz. They're on display in the 20-acre Parque-Museo La Venta, a lush park founded by Carlos Pellicer Cámara in 1958. The views of the misty Lago de las Ilusiones (Lake of Illusions) are stirring, which is probably why young lovers come here to smooch in quiet corners. The 6-foot-tall stone heads, which have bold features and wear what look like helmets, weigh up to 20 tons. The park also contains a zoo displaying animals from Tabasco and neighboring states. The jaguars—including one that is jet-black—always elicit screams from children. Sadly, many of the animals housed here are in danger of extinction.

Covered with dazzlingly elaborate cobalt tiles, the building housing the Museo de Historia de Tabasco was originally called the Casa de los Azulejos (House of the Tiles). The mansion would be over the top even without the cherubs reclining along the roof. The museum's collection is a bit sparse, but the individual pieces—an anchor from the days that pirates patrolled the Gulf of Mexico, a carriage from the reign of dictator Porfirio Díaz—help bring the past to life.

The compact Museo de la Historia Natural is just outside the entrance to the Parque-Museo La Venta. Of the most interest at this Natural History Museum are the displays of Tabasco's native plants and animals.

Many out-of-towners make a beeline for the Museo Regional de Antropología Carlos Pellicer Cámara. On the right bank of the Río Grijalva, the museum is named after the man who donated many of its artifacts. Pellicer, who has been called the "poet laureate of Latin America," was constantly inspired by a love of his native Tabasco.

Much of the collection is devoted to Tabasco and the Olmec people, the "inhabitants of the land of rubber" who flourished as early as 1750 BC and disappeared around 100 BC. The Olmec have long been recognized as inventors of the region's numerical and calendrical systems. The pyramid, later copied by the Maya and Aztec cultures, is also attributed to them. Some of the most interesting artifacts on display here are the remnants of their jaguar cult. The jaguar symbolized procreation, and many Olmec sculptures portray half-human, half-jaguar figures or human heads emerging from the mouths of jaguars.

Many artifacts from Mexico's ancient cultures are on the upper two floors, from the red-clay dogs of Colima and the nose rings of the indigenous Huichol people of Nayarit to the huge burial urns of the Chontal Maya, who built Comalcalco, a Mayan city near Villahermosa. All the explanations are in Spanish, but the museum is organized in chronological order and is decidedly easy to follow.