Salina Cruz

Salina Cruz is the main Pacific seaport of Oaxaca and the fourth-largest city in the state, with about 76,700 people in the city and 84,400 in the municipality (2020 census). It sits on the Gulf of Tehuantepec, close to where the Río Tehuantepec reaches the sea at Boca del Río, and is the southern end of the railway that crosses the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a working town rather than a resort: the port, the navy and the oil industry set its pace.

The Spanish recorded a salt-flat settlement here, "Salina de la Santa Cruz", early in the colonial period, traditionally dated to 1522. The modern city was built from the 1890s, when the British firm S. Pearson & Son dug an artificial harbour with two breakwaters for the Tehuantepec National Railway; Porfirio Díaz opened the port in 1907, and Salina Cruz became a free municipality in 1901. In 1974 Pemex opened the Antonio Dovalí Jaime refinery, one of Mexico's largest, with capacity of up to 330,000 barrels a day, and the oil terminal that ships fuel along the Pacific coast. The navy's shipyard and a naval air station are also here. The 7 September 2017 earthquake damaged several historic buildings, including the old municipal palace.

For visitors, the town's draw is the coast. The Playa Abierta malecón runs about 1.2 km along the open beach, with a public pool and a viewpoint, around 2 km from the centre. Bahía La Ventosa, 6 km southeast, has seafood restaurants and boat rides, and the beaches west toward Huatulco (Las Escolleras, Playa Azul, Playa Brasil) lead to Punta Conejo, a long right-hand point break that draws surfers from mid-March to late October. The Isthmus winds are strong here, often gusting past 90 km/h. Local life follows Isthmus customs: velas, calendas and mayordomías, and the town's Fiesta Pueblo in May.