Veracruz

Veracruz is Mexico's most diverse state: within its territory exist the Pico de Orizaba—the highest mountain in the country—, the tropical jungles of Los Tuxtlas, the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, and the oldest port city in the American continent. Founded in 1519 by Hernán Cortés, the city of Veracruz served as the gateway to New Spain for three centuries.

The port of Veracruz has a unique cultural identity in Mexico: jarocha, mestizo, and Caribbean all at once. Son jarocho—from which La Bamba emerges—and nights of danzón on the malecón are unparalleled sonic experiences. The portals of the port's Zócalo, with live marimba and café de olla, are among the most pleasant corners of the country to sit and watch life go by.

Xalapa, the capital, is a university city with world-class museums, rainy and lush, nestled on the mountainside between coastal warmth and cloud forests. The Museo de Antropología de Xalapa—with the world's largest collection of Olmec sculptures, including its famous colossal heads—ranks among Mesoamerica's finest museums.

Southern Veracruz preserves Olmec culture: La Venta, San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, and Tres Zapotes are the sites where Mesoamerica's first great civilization emerged 3,000 years before the Spanish arrived, laying the iconographic foundations for everything that followed.