Chiapa de Corzo

Most travelers meet Chiapa de Corzo as a dock - the embarcaderos here launch the boats into Sumidero Canyon - but the town predates the errand grandly. Founded in 1528 as the first Spanish city in Chiapas, its plaza holds the region's architectural signature: La Pila, a sixteenth-century fountain-pavilion in brick Mudejar style shaped like the Spanish crown, eight arched faces under a lantern tower, unique in the Americas and reason enough to linger before boarding. Around it spread arcades, the massive Santo Domingo church with its museum of lacquerware - the town's jicara-gourd craft tradition - and marimba-scored evenings of tascalate and pepita snacks. In January the town becomes the state's great stage: the Fiesta Grande brings out the Parachicos - dancers in carved wooden masks of pink-cheeked Spaniards, ixtle-fiber "hair" and embroidered serapes, rattling chinchines through the streets in processions UNESCO lists as intangible heritage - along with canoe-borne naval battle reenactments and food in fair quantities. The canyon gets the postcards; the town keeps the culture.

What you actually see

• La Pila - the crown-shaped Mudejar fountain on the plaza.
• The Parachicos - masked processions each January.
• The embarcadero - boats leaving for Sumidero's walls.
• The lacquer craft - painted gourds in shop and museum.

When to go

January 8-23 for the Fiesta Grande's full spectacle; otherwise dry-season mornings before or after the canyon boat, when the plaza belongs to marimba and shade.

Honest expectations

Most visitors give the town twenty minutes it deserves in hours - budget the plaza properly. Fiesta weeks pack lodging solid; day-trip from Tuxtla or San Cristobal then. The riverfront hustles boat tickets energetically.

Nearby

Sumidero Canyon's walls rise from the town's own river; Tuxtla's zoo and San Cristobal's highlands bracket the highway.