Olintepec

Olintepec, "place of the trembling hill" in Nahuatl (from olin, movement or tremor, and tepetl, hill), is today a village in the municipality of Ayala with 1,656 inhabitants in the 2020 census. It had 1,827 in 2010 and 1,390 in 2005, so the population fell over the last decade. It sits at about 1,164 metres above sea level, 3 km in a straight line south of San Pedro Apatlaco, the largest locality in the municipality, and 6.5 km southwest of Ciudad Ayala, the seat.

The climate is warm with summer rain: the mean annual temperature is around 22.5 C, January is the coolest month (about 20 C) and April the hottest (almost 26 C), and roughly 1,000 mm of rain fall a year, mostly in September. In the 2020 census 12.5 percent of residents identified as indigenous and 8.6 percent spoke an indigenous language; 27 percent were born outside Morelos. The postal code is 62713.

What sets this village apart is the archaeological site that carries its name, with more than three thousand years of occupation, covered on its own page; here we deal with the village and how to reach it. It suits someone already around Cuautla and Ayala who wants to see a farming village of eastern Morelos, with no formal tourist services: bring water and check hours before you go.