San Ildefonso Tultepec

San Ildefonso Tultepec is the other great Otomí community of Amealco, spread over hills and farmland about 20 kilometers east of town. Like Santiago Mexquititlán, it is a place of rag dolls, embroidery and family chapels rather than sights, and it gives a real sense of rural Otomí life in southern Querétaro.

Its best-known landmark is the shell of its old stone church, built in the 18th century and later wrecked by flooding. Only walls and arches remain, standing open to the sky, and they make a striking stop on the way into the village.

The village also has the Nt'okwä community museum, run by local people, which shows how their ancestors lived: pre-Hispanic pottery, clay bead necklaces, obsidian arrowheads and religious objects from the small Otomí family chapels that dot the area.