Acolihuia

The most photographed thing in Acolihuia is its bridge, the one shown on this page; it is the image the village is known by. It is a small place: the 2020 census recorded 596 residents, living at about 2,403 metres in the municipality of Chignahuapan, roughly 11 km in a straight line southwest of the municipal seat, the Pueblo Mágico known for its Christmas baubles.

The streams of this area belong to a much larger system. Three quarters of the municipality drains into the Tecolutla basin, which ends at the Gulf; a little over a fifth belongs to the Moctezuma basin, in the Pánuco region, and a sliver of about 2 percent flows toward the Atoyac and the Balsas. INEGI lists many year-round streams, such as the Agrio, the Blanco, Cantarranas and the Hondo, plus dams and small reservoirs. The main body of water is the Ajolotla lagoon. Among farmed hills, forests still cover a bit more than a third of the land.

Cold is part of daily life: municipal averages range from 10 to 16 degrees and annual rain runs from 600 to 900 mm, falling mostly in summer. According to Wikipedia, Chignahuapan is the second-largest municipality in Puebla, at about 759 km². Its people make clay pottery, footwear, rustic furniture and, above all, Christmas baubles and ornaments; kitchens turn out cheese bread, pressed chicharrón, pumpkin-seed and pine-nut jamoncillo and milk sweets.