Zapotitlán de Méndez

Zapotitlán de Méndez sits on a small plain between mountains, around 800 m up on the side of the Sierra Norte that drops toward the Gulf. The Zempoala river runs through town from west to east, and rain falls in almost every month: 2,500 to 3,000 mm a year, with average temperatures of 20 to 22 °C. The town had 1,751 residents in 2020, and the whole municipality covers barely 20 km².

The name comes from Nahuatl tzapotl, sapote, and titlan, read as "among the sapotes" or "where sapotes abound". The Méndez part honours Juan Nepomuceno Méndez, who fought the French intervention, governed Puebla and was president of Mexico from December 1876 to February 1877. Before the conquest the area was Totonac country, and its people ended up paying tribute to Texcoco under the Triple Alliance. In the 19th century the town answered to the Tetela district, and it became a free municipality in 1895.

Most visitors come for the Karmidas caves on the edge of town. Miguel Manzano Lobato, who ran a cane-liquor distillery and was tracing his stream to find water for the dry months, reached the main chamber on 19 March 1919 after widening a tight tunnel and climbing a 7 m waterfall; later, while cutting an easier entrance, he was trapped inside for three days. The show-cave entrance opened in 1923. A stream about half a metre deep flows through, and five chambers ring the main vault, among them the Hall of Silence and the Enchanted Lagoon. From October to April the mineral salts on the ceiling glitter under the lamps, which locals call a "shower of stars".

In town you can still see the Puente Morelos, built at the end of the 19th century, and a 19th-century town hall with a tiled roof. The main feast falls on 8 September, for the Virgin of the Nativity, with Quetzalines, Voladores, Huehues, Negritos and Toreadores dancers; the local music is huapango.