Zoquitlán

Pochocuiles are grubs raised inside jonote tree trunks, and in Zoquitlán they are eaten fried: it is one of the dishes that set apart this town of the Sierra Negra, in the far south-east of Puebla. The name joins Nahuatl zóquitl, mud, with the locative -tlan, meaning "in the mud", which makes sense quickly in a range where it hardly ever stops raining. The town had 3,404 residents in 2020 and stands at 2,149 m, about 42 km in a straight line from Tehuacán and 29 km from Huautla. Most people speak Nahuatl; the municipality counted about 15,850 speakers of an Indigenous language.

The Sierra Negra, known locally as the Sierra del Axusco, forms a single massif with the Sierra de Zongolica in Veracruz and tops 2,900 m at its summits. Moist air from the Gulf of Mexico runs into it, so the climate ranges from mild and very wet on the heights to warm in the ravines, with rainfall reaching 3,100 mm a year in places. Half of the 311 km² municipality is forest, with some tropical woodland lower down. Water flows east along the Coyolapa river into the Río Tonto, part of the Papaloapan basin. Besides the seat there are sub-districts such as Xitlama, Acatepec, Tepexilotla and Cacaloc.

In town stands the 16th-century church of San Pablo, which keeps carved wooden figures of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Wood is also the local trade: people carve pieces and above all spoons, and they also weave reed baskets and triangular palm fans, plus a little woollen clothing. For sweets there are candied squash, peach and quince, seed jamoncillo and alegría, and to drink, cane aguardiente.