Four Days in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec

The dramatic and startling Isthmus of Tehuantepec sits at the bottom of a steep, five thousand-foot descent down the Chiapas Depression. It’s a land of almost constant heat and humidity. I found the inhabitants of this coastal plain, the istmeños, to be among Oaxaca’s most unique and charismatic regional groups. And their imposing women have a remarkable demeanor: they really kick butt.

The Isthmus is barely a hundred miles wide with lush tropical lowlands watered by rivers that run down to the sea. It is bordered by the States of Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, and Oaxaca. Before the Panama Canal, it was an important shipping point between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, with a once-important railway connecting the two coasts.