Tomatlán

The Puente del Gato bridge, shown in the photo, is the image Tomatlán presents on Wikimedia Commons. This rural community in the municipality of Zacatlán had 2,181 residents in 2020 and sits at 2,141 m, a little higher than the town of Zacatlán, about 4 km to the north. Less than 2 km to the south is San Joaquín Tomatlán, also called San Isidro Tomatlán, a separate locality of 1,253 people that shares the name.

Zacatlán earned the nickname "of the Apples" in the 18th century and is still Puebla's top apple producer: some 2,400 hectares of orchards yield about 12,700 tonnes a year, more than a third of the state's harvest. Part of that fruit becomes around 400,000 bottles of cider a year, and the apple fair, held since 1941 in the week of 15 August, closes with a parade of floats from the communities that toss apples to the crowd. The town has been a Pueblo Mágico since 2011.

The setting is highland and cool by Puebla standards. The municipality has humid and subhumid temperate climates, with averages of 12 to 20 °C and rainfall from 700 to 2,100 mm depending on the area; the town averages about 14.5 °C and some 200 cloudy days a year, often with fog. More than half the land is farmed and nearly four tenths is forest. Local crafts include wool sarapes, gabanes and quexquémetl woven on backstrap looms, plus wooden utensils and pottery; in the kitchen, "pichón del campesino", mixiotes, tlacoyos and fruit sweets, from candied figs to quince paste.