Villas de Xochitepec

Few places in Morelos have grown as fast as Villas de Xochitepec. INEGI's census counted 8 people here in 2000, 2,226 in 2010 and 3,409 in 2020. The reason is that this is not an old village but a housing development, with modest family houses and larger homes, built in the municipality of Xochitepec on the low southern side of the state at about 1,096 m above sea level. Its postal code is 62790.

The name comes from the municipality rather than the neighbourhood: Xochitepec is Nahuatl, from xochitl (flower), tepetl (hill) and the locative co, "on the hill of flowers". The municipal seat, about 9 km away in a straight line, was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2023 and takes most of the visitors to this area. Villas de Xochitepec itself is a place where people live, many of them commuting to Cuernavaca, Xochitepec or Temixco, rather than a sight.

Expect streets of low houses, small parks and neighbourhood courts, and for-sale signs on the lamp posts. The oldest photographs of the development, uploaded to Wikimedia Commons from Panoramio, show rows of small houses with the Mariano Matamoros stadium and the new Xochitepec bypass close by. It works as a practical stop, for visiting someone or running errands, and as a way to see how Cuernavaca's built-up area has spread south.

For actual sightseeing, carry on to the centre of Xochitepec, with its clock hill and plaza, or to the Xochicalco archaeological site in the neighbouring municipality of Miacatlán.