Coatepec Harinas

Coatepec Harinas climbs the southern slopes of the Nevado de Toluca northwest of Ixtapan de la Sal, a town of whitewashed houses with sloping red-tile roofs surrounded by orchards, avocado groves and greenhouses. The State of Mexico named it a Pueblo con Encanto, its own label for towns with heritage worth visiting.

The name Coatepec means "hill of the serpents" in Nahuatl, and the area was settled by Matlatzinca people centuries before the Spanish arrived. "Harinas" (flours) was added in the 19th century, when local haciendas were known for milling high-quality wheat flour. Today the economy rests on farming: peaches and other fruit, avocados and flowers, helped by rivers and springs that run down from the volcano.

It is a place to slow down rather than tick off sights. Walk the center and its 17th-century Templo del Señor del Calvario, look for the colorful woolen garments made by local weavers, and if you come in late summer, try pepeto, the town's signature dish of chilacayote squash, fresh corn, beans and epazote, often cooked with pork and served around the August feast of the Assumption.