Soltepec

This town changed its name when its landscape changed. It was first called Zoyaltepec, from zoyatl, palm, and tepetl, hill: "on the hill of palms". Over the years the palm disappeared and people renamed the place Soltepec, from zollin, quail, "on the hill of quails"; the bird still appears among the municipality's wildlife, along with rabbits, hares, coyotes, opossums, hawks, owls and bobcats. The town had 6,533 inhabitants in 2020 and sits at 2,427 metres, about 52 km in a straight line from Puebla. From its square, on clear days, you can see the Citlaltépetl.

The municipality, 139.05 km², mixes two worlds. The northeast is flat, part of the Llanos de San Juan, an old closed lake basin whose lowest point holds the Totolcingo lagoon, with salty tequesquite outcrops; a network of irrigation canals connects with it. To the southeast runs a range rising some 500 metres above the valley, with steep slopes and the hills of Guiloa, Chiconguatze, La Magueyera, La Mesa and La Palizada; to the southwest begin the lower slopes of La Malinche. Elevation runs from 2,360 to 2,920 metres, averages are a mere 12 to 14 °C and 500 to 900 mm of rain falls. The north face of the range has pine and oak forest; the south face, desert scrub. The Tarasco, Salto de Gave and Xaxalapa ravines drop toward the Tepeaca valley, and in the community of San Mateo, 8 km from the seat, there is a marble mine. It borders Rafael Lara Grajales, Acatzingo, Mazapiltepec de Juárez and Nopalucan.

In the main square sits a prehistoric stone shaped like a cooking pot, and facing it the 17th-century parish church of San Hipólito. The cooking tastes of the cold highlands: mutton barbacoa, carnitas, grilled rabbit, mushroom mole, maguey worms, tlacoyos, broad beans with nopal and wheat tortillas, plus mole poblano, pipián, tamales and chileatole. People drink pulque, aguamiel and tepache, and sweets are made from pumpkin, chilacayote, peach, apple, perón and tejocote.