Readers of this here blog already know how much I enjoy exploring Precolumbian archaeological sites. 
Copalita, just outside of Huatulco in Mexico's state of Oaxaca, is one of my favorites.Way back in 2015 the cab ride took 10-15 minutes from the marina and the round trip cab fare was a mere US $11. The museum is compact and very well-curated. Whoever the architects were who designed the buildings of the museum and visitor center integrated modern materials and aesthetics that harmonize nicely with the size and shape of the ancient ruins and the jungle environment. Expect to take about 3-4 hours for a thorough visit. Go first thing in the morning if you've recently had heat stroke.
Copalita is archaeologically significant because artifacts recovered from the site date back as far as about 
600-500 BCE. It was a port city, located on the northern shore of the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of Tehuantepec, with a freshwater river and brackish estuary along its eastern boundary. On a bluff overlooking the ocean are the ruins of a stela; nearby on the same ridge is the platform/base of a monolith that was used as a lighthouse/beacon for oceangoing vessels....in 500 BCE. This one structure makes clear that there was a high enough volume of oceangoing trade in this area 2500 years ago that it made economic sense to build - and maintain - a lighthouse. To date it is the only such beacon discovered at any coastal archaeological site in Mexico.
Culturally, from sort of kind of about roughly approximately 300 BCE through about 1200 CE Copalita defined the boundary between the Zapotecs to the south and the Mixtecs and Aztecs to the north. The ruins and artifacts of Zapotec Copalita reveal a strong association with its contemporary, the great Zapotec/Mixtec city of Monte Alban, located further inland and north in what is now the state of Oaxaca.
Archaeological excavation at Copalita only began in about 1988, and the site was not opened to the public until late 2010. As a result, everyone involved with this project - from the archaeologists and restorers, to the architects and curators, approached its preservation with very modern sensibilities. The results are fantastic. To preserve the ruins the public is not allowed to climb on them. If trees were found growing in/around/through the ruins they were left in place, unlike the practice of earlier decades at other sites which demanded that all vegetation be removed. Visitors to Copalita are required to stay on the jungle-shaded trails as they wind past many of the structures that represent the various phases of Copalita's life. Well-interpreted signs explain the earliest low stone platforms with artists' renditions of what may have been topped with a series of thatched structures (see those 2 pics side by side, above left). It seems that most of Copalita had been built on swampland that seasonally flooded from that darn river next door, requiring the people to place large smooth river stones as the drainage base of the platforms, then building upward with flatter, more rectangular stones. Archaeologists discovered the remains of stucco made from a mix of seashells and sand, which would have given all Copalita's buildings a smooth, bright white finish. (I'm thinking Copalita may have looked a bit like the white-plastered buildings seen in towns on some of the Greek islands.)
The trail takes the visitor past the ball court - also low-profile, almost more like a much later-period Hohokam ball court than the Mayan ball courts in sites like Chichen Itza. This one appears to have had a row of stelae at either end, with a large round flat stone that sure looked to me like an altar. Soon the visitor reaches the larger, more monumental pyramid structures. Continuing along the trail through the jungle and uphill toward the coastal cliffs it becomes obvious that many of Copalita's pyramids and other structures are either unexcavated and/or backfilled, or are completely off-limits to the public. No worries - there is still very much to see.
The cliffside view from the lighthouse beacon allows an aerial impression of how the port city of Copalita 
must have operated. It is very easy to imagine seagoing vessels entering and exiting the river estuary, watched over by, shall we say, Copalita's Port Captain up there on the hill. It would have been an easy matter to count the vessels coming and going, and distinguish a harmless merchant vessel from Nicaragua as opposed to possibly a Haida war canoe from waaay up north.
The Zapotecs and Mixtecs were known for some gruesome ceremonies involving things like obsidian knives and screaming captives. They also crafted some intricate artwork that sometimes incorporated human remains - whether for ceremonial purposes or burial offerings or as souvenirs, I am not at liberty to recall. Copalita's museum includes some such artifacts on loan from its sister-city to the north, Monte Alban. One of those is this whimsical skull with seashell eyes, nose, and teeth, and turquoise mosaic...overlaid on a real honest-to-goodness human skull. I suppose entering the Zapotec Port of Copalita from the sea would have been pretty risky if all your papers weren't in order.
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