Getting Oriented

Chiapas is Mexico's southernmost state. And if the villages here resemble those of the Guatemalan Highlands, it's because Guatemala lies just beyond the eastern border. To the west lies Oaxaca, and to the south is one of Mexico's last stretches of relatively undeveloped coastline. Inland, mountain roads are full of hairpin turns hugging the edges of ravines. To the north is the mostly flat, pastoral state of Tabasco.