Santa María Jalapa del Marqués

Jalapa del Marqués sits in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec at about 126 metres above sea level, in hot country between low hills such as Cerro del Marqués and Cerro del Tizate. Its Zapotec name, Guiigu yudxi, means "river of sand". Before the Spanish arrived there was a temple here to the queen Pinopiaa, from the time of the last Zaachila rulers. The cult lasted into the 17th century, when colonial authorities destroyed the temple, and the friar Francisco de Burgoa recorded how it was later merged with the veneration of Saint Catherine of Siena.

The present town is young. In 1961 the Presidente Benito Juárez dam was closed across the Tehuantepec and Tequisistlán rivers and the water covered the earlier settlement; residents moved to the west bank of the river beside the federal highway. The reservoir has been the local economy ever since: tilapia-type mojarra is farmed, fished and sold, and a mojarra fair is held each year. People also weave cast nets (tarrayas) and make clay comales, sold at the municipal market.

The table is the most practical reason to stop: mojarra cooked several ways, chacales (freshwater prawns), goat barbacoa, corn and iguana tamales, and bread from wood-fired ovens. On the water there are boat rides, a landing, small beaches and the dam wall; the Aguascalientes neighbourhood has thermal water, and guided walks go up Cerro del Marqués. When the reservoir drops, in some years a submerged 16th-century Dominican convent shows above the surface.

Fiestas set the calendar: San Sebastián de las Flores on 18-21 January, Santa Cruz on 3 May, Santo Domingo de Guzmán on 4-7 August, the Assumption on 13-16 August, the Rosary on 7 October and San Judas Tadeo on 28 October. On the Day of the Dead the town builds altars of marigold and cockscomb, and fiestas bring candles, floats, wind bands and Isthmus music.