Tlacuilotepec

Tlacuilotepec is the seat of the municipality of the same name in Puebla's northern sierra, at about 1,310 m. The village had 1,638 people in 2020, while the municipality, spread over 62 settlements, had 17,115 in 2010: nearly everyone lives in communities scattered through the mountains, such as San Pedro Petlacotla and Papaloctipan. The municipality covers 0.5% of the state, between 260 and 1,680 m, and borders Hidalgo, Taxco, Jalpan, Xicotepec, Huauchinango, Naupan, Pahuatlán and Tlaxco.

It is steep, high mountain country: INEGI places it in the Huastec karst of the Sierra Madre Oriental, with Cretaceous and Jurassic limestone and shale. Rain is heavy and falls all year, 2,400 to 2,600 mm annually, in a semi-warm humid climate with mean temperatures of 16 to 24 °C. Its permanent rivers, the Acalman, Álamo and San Marcos, drain to the Tuxpan and Cazones basins, toward the Gulf.

Almost half the land is farmed, though INEGI rates most of the slopes as unsuitable for crops; the rest is pasture, forest and a few patches of tropical forest. For travellers, the village is about 10 km in a straight line from the Pueblo Mágico of Pahuatlán and about 41 km from Tulancingo in Hidalgo, on mountain roads.