Otzelotzi

Otzelotzi is a 3,087 m volcanic cone in Vicente Guerrero municipality, about 20 km in a straight line northeast of Tehuacán and 32 km south-southwest of Orizaba. Its base is over 2 km across, and ravines up to 500 m deep cut around it. Wikipedia places it in the Sierra Madre del Sur near the junction with the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, while México Desconocido counts it among that belt's southernmost volcanoes in Puebla. It is thought to be Quaternary, only a few tens of thousands of years old according to geologist Agustín Ruiz Violante.

The real draw lies at its foot. Old lava flows blocked the valleys and created the San Bernardino lakes: Laguna Chica, brownish, at 2,440 m; Laguna Grande, green, at 2,500 m; and the blue Lagunilla at 2,600 m. Boats can be hired on Laguna Grande, which has restaurants and cabins nearby; the Lagunilla is deep with internal currents, better for fishing bass, trout and pescado blanco than for swimming.

The name is linked to a Nahuatl word for pregnancy, and some have suggested the hill was tied to fertility rites, though that remains a guess. A firmer tradition: on New Year's Eve the community climbs a path of about 500 m to the summit, lit by candles and lined with twelve crosses, to hear Mass at the top. On clear days the summit looks out to Pico de Orizaba, Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.