Allende

Almost everyone calls it Villa Allende. After the city itself it is the largest locality in the municipality of Coatzacoalcos, and it sits directly across from it on the right bank of the Coatzacoalcos River, at the point where the river meets the Gulf of Mexico. The town lies about 9 metres above sea level, and only the width of the river separates it from the city it merges with.

Oil and petrochemicals shape daily life here. Pemex runs the Pajaritos logistics terminal and the Pajaritos and Morelos petrochemical complexes in and around Allende, while the Cangrejera complex is in neighbouring Mundo Nuevo. Workers come from across the Coatzacoalcos and Minatitlán metropolitan area, and much of the traffic over the river is heading to or from these plants.

Getting across the water has always been the town's other story. For decades the only local crossing was the Coatzacoalcos I bridge, opened in 1962 with two lanes of Federal Highway 180 and a rail line. To relieve it, the state built the Coatzacoalcos Underwater Tunnel, the first of its kind in Mexico: 1.1 km long, four lanes wide and up to 21 metres below the river at its deepest, assembled from prefabricated sections sunk into place. It took 13 years, ended up costing 5.398 billion pesos, more than three times the original budget, and opened on 27 April 2017. During the digging on the Allende side, INAH archaeologists recovered remains of Olmec settlements dating from 1200 to 400 BC, including net weights, pots and human figurines.

For a visitor, Allende is above all its riverside malecón, looking across to Coatzacoalcos and the boats moving in and out of the river mouth; at the water's edge stands an image of the Virgen del Carmen, patron of fishermen.