Tamaulipas

Tamaulipas is Mexico's most extensive border state with Texas, with more than 750 kilometers of international boundary that largely define its economy, culture, and gastronomy. Reynosa, Nuevo Laredo, and Matamoros are the most active crossing cities of the world's busiest border corridor, with tens of thousands of daily crossings of people and merchandise.

Tampico, on the Gulf coast, was the port of black gold: during the first decades of the twentieth century it was the world's petroleum capital before Saudi Arabia changed the energy map. Today the art deco historic center of Tampico, with its Plaza de Armas and its buildings from the twenties and thirties, recalls that era of splendor. Tampiqueña gastronomy—with caldo largo de camarón, tortas de camarón, and the famous "tam" of the northern empanada—is among the richest on the Gulf.

Laguna Madre, a protected coastal system between the mainland and the Barrier Islands of the Gulf, is one of Mexico's most important ecosystems for bird migration: more than 300 species use these wetlands as a migratory corridor between the north and south of the continent. Soto la Marina and the La Pesca area offer world-class sport fishing for corvina, robalo, and sea trout.

Ciudad Victoria, the state capital, holds Parque Nacional El Cielo in its nearby highlands, one of the world's northernmost cloud forests, where species from the tropics and temperate north coexist in exceptional biodiversity.