Tezontepec

Tezontepec means "on the hill of tezontle", and the town was indeed founded on top of a hill of that reddish volcanic stone, at 2,321 metres in the Tizayuca valley. Around 1530 it was home to a mix of Nahua, Chichimec and Otomí people under the lordship of Tizayuca, itself a tributary of Texcoco; its first encomendero was Baltazar de Obregón. Augustinian friars built the church of San Pedro in 1540 and the friary in 1554, and fresco paintings survive in the cloister. In colonial times it belonged to Pachuca; it became a municipality in 1869, and on 13 November 1912 the congress raised it to the rank of villa, hence the municipality's name. The town itself has 6,213 residents.

The upper cloister of the former friary houses the Museo Prehispánico y Religioso Fe y Cultura, with clay and stone figurines, religious objects from several periods and mammoth bones found in the Barrancas de Acozac, about 10 km from the centre. The main square has an octagonal bandstand in an oriental style, ringed with dragons. On another hill, propped on tall pillars, stands the Santuario de Tlexpa, built in 1945 for the Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos, known locally as the Virgen del Cerrito. The old railway station and parts of the centre were used as a location for the TV series Club de Cuervos.

Most visitors, though, come to eat. At weekends barbacoa stalls set up in the central garden, selling meat slow-cooked in an earth pit with maguey leaves and tezontle stones; arrive early and you can watch the oven being opened. Giant tortas have been made here since 1958, and on 1 May, Torta Makers' Day, thousands are handed out free. Pulque is the drink and handmade ice cream the dessert. The Monday market is said to be the oldest in the region, and the craft corridor and shops in the centre sell western wear, boots and leather goods.