Chiapa de Corzo is a town of about 45,000 in the Southernmost state of Mexico, smack between San Cristobal de las Casas, the Chiapan capital established by the Spanish conquistadors, and Tuxtla Gutierrez, which functions as the capital today. Before the arrival of the Spanish, it was home to the Mayan people, who left some cool ruins and many descendants. Before the Mayans were some other peoples; it’s believed that Chiapas de Corzo has been inhabited since around 1400 BC. As a result, Chiapas is the Mexican state with the fewest native Spanish speakers; there are about eight Mayan languages still spoken here. As of the mid 90’s, it was also the least developed state in Mexico, but I haven’t been able to find any more recent data, so I’m not sure if that’s still true; for what its worth, my phone has five bars and LTE right now. It is also home to the world’s only lacquer museum.
I am surrounded by what are either very large hills or fairly small mountains and rainforest vegetation. I can see a huge river from my backyard (the Grijalva) which I was told contains crocodiles. I can hear a number of exotic birds, occasionally interrupted by the deafening bang of late-afternoon fireworks (I know what you’re thinking and my mind went to gunshots first too, but after like the sixth one, I was able to spot the smoke trail). The weather forecast for this week has every day in the upper 80’s with at least a 50% chance of thunderstorms. For the next six months or so, this is home.
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