Ocotepec

Ocotepec takes its name from Nahuatl and reads as "at the hill of the ocotes" (pitch pines), the etymology Wikipedia borrows from Cecilio Robelo. The village sits at 2,523 metres on the flat Llanos de Apan, in Almoloya municipality, and its water drains toward the Tochac and Tecocomulco lagoons. Weather is cool and temperate: about 13 °C on average over the year, January the coldest month, rain mostly in summer.

In 2020 it had 833 residents in 209 homes; INEGI records no speakers of an indigenous language, and almost every house has electricity and piped water. What sets the place apart is the former Hacienda San Francisco Ocotepec, which INEGI's locality map puts about 260 metres east of the centre, with some 70 inhabitants. The Escapada H guide includes it on its Apan haciendas route and says the estate was handed in 1824 to Leona Vicario and Andrés Quintana Roo, in return for the money they put into the independence cause.

The surroundings are plain broken by low hills: Cerro San Pedro (2,598 m) lies roughly 2 km west and Cerro San Fernando (2,648 m) about 2.4 km southwest, both within walking distance. The city of Apan, around 28,800 people, is 2.4 km to the northwest as the crow flies and holds the hotels and restaurants; Ocotepec itself has no lodging.