Tampico is the capital of the east coast state of Tamaulipas in Mexico, facing the Gulf of Mexico, bordering the United States of America to the north. Tampico is located at the southernmost end of the state, directly north of Veracruz, and like Veracruz, has a lot of oil around it. In fact, it used to have Mexico's largest oil field (it has dried up) and was the leading oil port of the Americas.
The area is also home to extensive lagoon systems, including a major lake within the city, that feeds the canal leading to the river Pánuco, Mexico's largest river and the state border.
There's also a small pyramid built by the Huasteca people.
It's cheap and easy to go around with a taxi. Uber is available, but service was unreliable while I was there. There's also Ciudad Madero and Altamira within the metropolitan area (you can also choose to go to Veracruz, but there's nothing much to see), but Tampico itself probably won't take more than a day for anyone to see everything.
One thing that must be addressed is its cathedral, which has swastikas all over its floor inside. There are some hypotheses as to why they had them:
That German funds went into its construction (more like renovation, as the cathedral was built before the Nazis came into existence).
That it was an ancient Hindu symbol, which begs the question of why a Catholic cathedral would have it.
That a distorted crucifix is a common symbol for prosecuted Christians who had to hide their identity. Nevertheless, Catholics have never, ever been prosecuted for their faith in the entire history of México, a very Catholic country. This is without mentioning the fact that this is a Catholic cathedral and you cannot exactly hide its faith.
The only explanation I saw that made sense to me was that it was used as a symbol for good luck in the western world (we can see that all over Europe and North America), and simply wasn't removed despite the Second World War.
What do you think? And do you think the cathedral should cover or remove them? Comment below!