Chiapas was the most anticipated part of the trip. Chiapas is the most southern state of Mexico, by the Pacific coast and by the Guatemalan border. It is a very diverse state when it comes to physical geography, it includes sub-tropical rainforest, high mountains and plains, the coast. It was also one of the states where ancient Mayans reigned for centuries, leaving behing hundreds of temples In Chipapas the amplitude of the tempretatures were the highest of all trip, for example driving from city of San Cristobal de las Casas in the cool mountains town to Palenque region in a hot and humid jungle. 

It actually used to be a part of Guatemala until the 1840s as its people had stronger bonds and a sense of identity tied with Guatemala.

Chiapas is a paradise full of hidden gems and uncanny attractions that would thrill any adventure seeker - but not everybody dares to. Chiapas is unfortunately one of the poorest states of the country and even with its relatively low crime rate some inciidents may occur, specially to the tourists that roam around by themselves. Not necessairly life-threatening situations, but it is not uncommon to encounter a barricade of children on the road who won't let you pass unless you hand them money. There are some particular routes that are known for that, the most known one probably being the Palenque - San Christobal de las Casas. But if you are going with a tour all the tour buses from different companies stick together and have contacts with the police so there is really nothing to stress about. We decided to take tours anyway because we didn't have enough time to cover everything up by ourselves.

Chiapas is also famous for indigenous villages with... peculiar rituals, we didn't take part in any, but I think that Chula village is the most known and touristy. There is this small catholic church that combines christianity with indigenous beliefs and sacrifices chickens in the temple during the ceremony.

We first arrived to San Christobal de las Casas, one of the biggest cities in the region and the cultural heart of the state. We stayed in San Chris for four nights and decided that this would be our accomodation for all the trips around Chiapas.  All the guided tours start from here and it was actually a good idea to be walking around the main street and book the tours in their offices downtown instead of doing it online - the prices were much better!

The city itself is a colonial town hidden in the mountains, at about 2200 meters above sea level. It has one main street in the historical centre where the life concentrates, but actually throughout the whole central area entertainment and accomodation can be found. Most of the inhabitatts work in the tourist sector, it is a heavily touristic town but it is actially prospering thanks to it.

It has a totally different vibe to Oaxaca though. It too had lots of indigenous people but they seem to feel a bit more hostile to the tourists, as if they were disturbing their chiapan life, but on the other hand they need to be tolerated because they are the main income of the area. I think this was also due to the feel of slight poverty. But not that much. I don't want to generalize and spread hate because many locals were amazingly helpful and nice to us, specially considering my rough spanish. Oh, that is another thing, I think that in Chiapas it would be very difficult to get around without any basic spanish. It's essential to make arrangements, to understand the tour driver, in most accomodation. Learn spanish, folks! 

But I wouldn't say that I didn't enjoy being there, it just needed more time to get used to a different mindset. The main street was full of interesting shops and restaurants and coffeehouses. Actually, coffee is a pretty big thing in Chipas as it is grown in the state, in the mountains (coffee plants can grow and give crops above a certain altitude). There were a few fantastic coffee houses along the main street where we drank specialty coffee and even did a coffee tasting - we got regular coffee, coffee flower infusion and cascara (dried out coffee fruit) infusion. 

Walking through the narrow streets between one-storey colourful buildings was like living a dream about being an adventurer in Mexico. 

The following day we took another organised trip, but this time in the opposite direction driving towards the Guatemalan border. This time we had a wonderful tour guide that was very excited about those two polish people among a tour full of Mexicans of various mexican states and everybody just seemed so kind to us. It was a very good day!

Lagos the Montebello were supposedly the highlight of this daytrip, it is a series of very picturesque lakes licated right by the Guatemalan border. It was in fact possible to buy guatemalan goods like coffee, beer, spices or sweets and eat a typical guatemalan dish.

One of the lakes is split between Mexico and Guatemala, the border goes right trough its middle. We were dropped of at the border where we could also go to a small market on the Guatemalan side selling guatemalan souvenirs, cigarettes, coffee and other goods. 

Technically speaking, we went for a short walk in Guatemala.

Chiapa de Corzo was the last stop of our Chiapan adventure. It is one of the magical cities called Pueblos Magicos, and we finished our boat ride over there. It was very hot over there at midday, we had a quick look around, ate a meal at a local marketplace and went to the airport.