Jalapa Enríquez Things to Do

The second most impressive church in my opinion is the Iglesia de San Jose. Originally built in 1535, it has seen a couple restorations over the years.

It is noticeably smaller than the main Cathedral, but its non-symmetric construction and bright colors are catching from the outside. The interior is quite stunning also.

The Museum of Anthropology in Jalapa in Veracruz is for sure one of the Must-See-Museums in Mexico. It presents almost 30 centuries of art and history. It guards the most-important collection of pre-Columbian works produced by the groups who have been living in the state.

The museum is a dependency of the Universidad Veracruzana, which gives it a character of "living museum", that is, of an organization changing and updationg its contents thanks to the investigation. It was created in 1957, being the first one of the country in this type. The present building was constructed in 1986 by an architect from New York.

Opening hours every day of the year are from 9 am to 5 pm. There are 18 galleries, six rooms and 4 patios to be seen. The patrimony has been divided and lodged into several rooms using chronical and geographical criteria.

It begins with the Early Preclassic Period, presenting the Olmec culture with seven colossal heads, stone masks and monumental basalt thrones.

There are magnificent works in ceramics, including cihuateteo, sculptures of women in real size and more roo s representing the culture of El Tajin and Huastec until the conquest of this region.

What I liked best of the museum, besides its historical content, was the architecture and the gardening besides, including clear structures, without details.

If you`ve got a fair amount of time in Xalapa, you should definitely check out the Museo de Antropología which resides in Xalapa. The museum is home to a very impressive collection of giant Olmec heads, Olmec sculptures and pottery and ancient indigenous utensils, art, etc.

I am not normally impressed by museums and only went because I needed somewhere interesting to take a date, but I was genuinely quite impressed by this place.

One word of advice: If you are a student (and have student ID to prove it) tell them. There should be a student discount (1/2 off) IF YOU ASK FOR IT. I did not, and got charged double. It should cost 40.00 pesos (USD$ 4.00) for general admission, and half that much for students.

There is nothing better then walking around town on a pleasant afternoon. I started on Plaza Juarez, watching the students get out of their classes. Xalapa is a University town per se as it has a large student population. From there, I walked downtown through "Callejon Diamante" and took a nice picture of "Callejon de Jesus te Ampare."

The impressive Museo de Antropologia en Xalapa has a variety of important Meso-American archeological artifacts. It gave me an insight into the cultures present in Veracruz as well as the past civilizations, specially the Olmecs. There are daily tours of this facility at 11:30, except on Mondays!