Ayotoxco de Guerrero

From 1 to 6 October Ayotoxco honours Saint Francis of Assisi and, at the same time, holds its regional maize fair: livestock, food and craft shows, and jaripeos (rodeo riding) reputed to be among the best in Puebla's northeastern sierra. The rest of the year it is a hot-country town of 3,163 people in 2020, sitting at just 303 metres where the Sierra Norte de Puebla drops toward the Gulf coast, 14 km in a straight line from Cuetzalan and 49 km from Poza Rica. Its name comes from ayotochtli, armadillo (literally "turtle-rabbit"), with the place ending co: "place of armadillos". The "de Guerrero" was added in 1930 in honour of Vicente Guerrero.

It was founded by Totonacs before the conquest and later subdued by the Triple Alliance; in 1519 it answered to Tlatlauquitepec, and in the 16th century it came under the encomienda system. The state congress raised the hamlet to pueblo status in 1850 and in 1930 split it from Tlatlauquitepec as the seat of its own municipality, which now borders Tenampulco, Hueytamalco, Tlatlauquitepec, Yaonáhuac and Cuetzalan. On the west runs the powerful Apulco River, which for more than 20 km marks the line with Cuetzalan and Jonotla before joining the Tecolutla; through the centre the Huitzilac and Gachupinate flow down to the Metzonate. Between 2,400 and 3,600 mm of rain falls here each year, and in June 2008 floods on these rivers put some twenty thousand people in the region at risk.

Nearly six in ten hectares are pasture and a third is farmed, so cattle matter as much as maize. Close to two thousand people in the municipality speak Totonac or Nahuatl. Craftspeople make hemp cast nets weighted with lead, vine baskets, ixtle horse straps and drawn-thread tablecloths. The cooking comes from river and hearth: acamayas (river prawns) in garlic or broth, pork and chicken barbacoa, oven-baked stuffed pork, smoked meats and mondongo, with pumpkin-seed jamoncillo, cocada and pepitoria for dessert, and tepache or yolixpa, an aguardiente steeped with aromatic herbs, to drink. Close by is El Paraíso de Ayotoxco, an ecotourism ranch with a zip line, rappelling, horse rides to petroglyphs and a temazcal.