La Lagunilla

Nearly six hundred metres separate La Lagunilla from its municipal seat: Tlacuilotepec stands at about 1,340 metres, while this hamlet of 345 people (2020 census) lies at just 765, in the lower reaches of the sierra. Xicotepec, the reference city in this northwestern corner of the state, is about 11 km away, Tulancingo in Hidalgo about 51 km, and the city of Puebla some 152 km. Roughly 4 km to the northwest is Tlaxco, seat of the neighbouring municipality.

Water here does not reach the Gulf by the Tecolutla, as in much of the sierra, but through the Tuxpan and Cazones basins. INEGI lists the Pantepec, San Marcos and Acalman as year-round rivers in the municipality and El Álamo as seasonal. Rain falls in every month, 2,400 to 2,600 mm a year, with temperatures of 16 to 24 °C; nearly all of Tlacuilotepec has a humid semi-warm climate, with small warm and temperate strips at the altitude extremes.

The landscape is mostly ranching and farming: over a third of the municipality is pasture and another 43% is cultivated, while woodland covers about 14% and tropical forest under 8%. Tlacuilotepec has speakers of several Indigenous languages, among them Nahuatl, Otomí, Tepehua and Totonac, according to the compendium. Local hands make pottery, baskets and embroidery, and the kitchen offers pipián, pazcal, barbacoa and tamales, with coffee and aguardiente to drink. In the municipal seat, the church of Cristo Rey dates from the 17th century.