Buenavista del Monte

High in the hills west of Cuernavaca, at 1,938 m, Buenavista del Monte feels closer to a village of the State of Mexico's sierra than to the city it belongs to. According to INAH's Morelos centre it sits on the high, flat part of a ridge bounded by the ravines of El Sabino, Cocotzin, El Tejocote and El Túnel, and it keeps up maize fields, cattle and, above all, avocado orchards. Its neighbours are Ahuatenco, Ocuilan and Mexicapan across the line in the State of Mexico, and El Cebadal, Cuentepec and Tetlama in Morelos.

The settlement is young. A 2017 Diario de Morelos piece records that early in the twentieth century there were only a few cattle ranchers, that about ten houses stood here in 1940, and that families then arrived from the State of Mexico and Guanajuato, especially from Pénjamo. Piped water came around 1975; before 1976 people lit their homes with pine torches and kerosene lamps, and many houses are still adobe. INEGI counts 839 people in 2005, 910 in 2010 and 1,135 in 2020.

Avocados shape local life. In 2016 Cuernavaca's city government launched an Aguacatour with guided visits in groups of up to ten and workshops on ranch cheese and village bread; the first stage sold 500 tonnes of fruit. The village also keeps its own alarm, the Riel, a series of strikes that carries about 3 km and calls people together. There are no hotels in the village; the closest are around 6 km away.