Monte Tláloc

Tláloc, or Tlalocatepetl, is an extinct, eroded volcano rising to 4,120 m on the border of Texcoco and Ixtapaluca municipalities, the ninth-highest summit in Mexico. With Telapón (4,060 m) and a few lower hills it makes up the Sierra de Río Frío, the northern end of the Sierra Nevada chain that runs south to Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl. Its slopes belong to the Zoquiapan section of the Izta-Popo national park, forested with pine, oak, fir and alder up to about 4,000 m, with bunchgrass above. Expect cold: the yearly average is under 8 °C, and most rain falls from May to October.

The mountain was one of the holiest places of the Aztec Triple Alliance, believed to be a home of the rain god. On the summit is a walled stone enclosure reached by a causeway about 150 m long, counted as the highest archaeological site in Mesoamerica, with remains going back to around AD 350. Rulers from Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan climbed up in April, just before the rains, with offerings and sacrifices. Around 1539 the temple was pulled down on the orders of Bishop Juan de Zumárraga; INAH archaeologist Víctor Arribalzaga, whose team has recorded 176 sites on the slopes, has since rebuilt the causeway.

There is no ticket office or opening hours. The ejidos that own the land watch over it, and signs along the path ask hikers to stay on the trail and leave the stones alone. Around 12 February the sun rises between Pico de Orizaba and La Malinche, the so-called ghost mountain, and thousands come up for it; about 3,000 people did in 2017.