Santo Tomás Tamazulapan

Tamazulapan means "river of the toads" in Nahuatl (tamazollin, toad, and apan, river), and Santo Tomás is the patron apostle. The town, at 1,680 metres, is the seat of a municipality of only 66.6 square kilometres in the Miahuatlán district of the Sierra Sur, governed by customary law (usos y costumbres). Growth has been clear in recent decades: 1,171 people in 2000, 1,559 in 2010 and 2,021 in 2020, and in 2020 18.8% of residents identified as Indigenous.

Besides the seat, the municipality has five other localities in the 2020 census: Los Manantiales, El Cerrito, San Jerónimo Miahuatlán, Cerro de Tepalcatillos and Güilotes. Hills ring the town: Piedra Colorada (2,051 m), Piedra Blanca (2,111 m), La Cruz (2,058 m) and Cerro Azul (2,307 m). The climate is temperate, 10 to 20 degrees C and 600 to 1,200 mm of rain a year; half the land is forest and nearly a third is grassland.

At the table there is mole in several variants and, at fiestas, people play and dance the sones del borrego and del guajolote. We found no local crafts or tourist sights listed. In the 2020 census nearly 79% of homes had a mobile phone and 38% internet, so expect signal in town. Visitors who have left comments mention poor street surfaces and water cuts; treat it as a roadside stop rather than a multi-day destination.