Jonuta

Jonuta is a small town in Tabasco on a wide bend of the Usumacinta River, Mexico's largest river, about half an hour from Palizada. It looks like a quiet river port, but it sits on top of Honochtah, a Chontal Maya town that was one of the great pottery workshops of the Maya world.

Between roughly the 8th and 13th centuries, potters here used the river's fine clay to make vessels, plates and above all small mold-made figurines of lords, warriors, women and dancers, with detailed headdresses and clothing. Jonuta figurines traveled far across the Maya region and beyond, and pieces now sit in collections such as Harvard's Peabody Museum. In 1579 the Spanish moved the people of Xicalango, a coastal trading port harassed by pirates, to this spot, and the town took the name Xonuta.

The local archaeology museum, created around the collection gathered by teacher Omar Huerta Escalante, displays many of these figurines and is the main reason to visit. Afterward you can walk along the river, watch the boats on the Usumacinta, and eat freshwater fish in one of the town's simple restaurants. Part of the municipality lies inside the Pantanos de Centla biosphere reserve.