Alumbres

Alumbres sits on a plateau of the Sierra Alta, 2,101 metres above sea level, in Metztitlán municipality. INEGI counted 576 residents in 2020, 285 men and 291 women, against 427 in 2005. At that height the climate is temperate and sub-humid with summer rain and an average of about 13 °C; in the winter of 2008 a 2.5 cm snowfall was recorded, according to the weather series Pueblos América compiles.

Water here drains toward the Metztitlán river sub-basin, and that name, which in Nahuatl means "place of the moon", gives the whole region its identity. The municipality holds part of the Metztitlán Canyon, declared a Biosphere Reserve, and has a low share of indigenous-language speakers (12.5%), very unlike the Huasteca. In Alumbres seven in ten homes have a mobile phone, but only one in ten has internet.

The practical side of the place is its position: the nearest eateries in INEGI's business directory are not in the community but in Zacualtipán, about 3 kilometres off, along the Mexico-Tampico federal highway. Cerro Alto (2,210 m), some 6 km south, and Cerro El Escorpión (2,675 m) to the northwest give a sense of the mountain relief around the plateau. For a longer stay the natural base is Metztitlán, with its Augustinian convent.