Ameluca

Few places in Puebla sit so low: Ameluca lies at just 162 m above sea level, at the northern tip of the state, where the mountains break up into hills and valleys already facing the Veracruz coastal plain. Its Nahuatl name joins amatl, amate tree, with the idea of ownership and the place suffix -can, and translates as "where there are amate trees". It had 1,191 people in 2020, slightly up from 1,126 in 2010, and lies about 13 km in a straight line from Pantepec, the municipal seat, 33 km from Xicotepec and 39 km from Poza Rica, the nearest city; the state capital is 174 km away in a straight line.

The municipality of Pantepec belongs to the Sierra Madre Oriental, in the band of low ranges of the Carso Huasteco, and borders Veracruz to the north and west. It is hot and very humid country: averages of 23 to 25 °C and 1,900 to 2,000 mm of rain a year, with heavy summer downpours and, in part of the territory, rain in every month. Everything drains to the Tuxpan basin through the Pantepec River, which rises in the mountains of Hidalgo, runs about 130 km and, on joining the Vinazco, forms the Tuxpan River, which reaches the Gulf. About 62% of the land is farmed, almost a quarter is grassland and the rest keeps its tropical forest.

The municipal population is very diverse: Totonac, Otomí, Tepehua, Nahuatl and other languages are spoken, by more than 6,700 speakers of Indigenous languages. In the seat, the parish church of San Juan Bautista dates from the 17th century. Local carpenters make furniture of mahogany, cedar and oak and parts for wooden sugar mills, and women weave and embroider the wool quechquémitl. People eat mole, pipián, tamales and zacahuil; for dessert, squash in panela, cassava and mango and guava preserves, with coffee, aguardiente and fruit wines. The music at fiestas is the huapango.