Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl

Amatlán de Quetzalcóatl is a village in the municipality of Tepoztlán, tucked into a green valley east of town and ringed by the same tall, fluted cliffs that make Tepoztlán famous. Local tradition holds that the legendary priest-king Ce Ácatl Topiltzin Quetzalcóatl was born here, and a monument to him stands in the village's civic plaza. The name means "place of the amate trees": in pre-Hispanic times the village made bark paper and sent it as tribute to the Mexica.

The pace is slower than in Tepoztlán, and most visitors come to walk. Old trails lead to named hills and lookouts, such as the Cerro de la Ventana, the Cerro de la Puerta and the Tlamanco viewpoint, which looks out over Amatlán, Tepoztlán and Yautepec. In the rainy season seasonal streams and small falls run through the ravines around the village. A community ecotourism project offers cabins, camping, guided walks, horseback rides and birdwatching, and there is a center for traditional medicine.

The village was emptied during the Mexican Revolution, when local lore says Zapatistas hid in the caves around it, and it was only resettled in the 1930s. It sits inside the protected Chichinautzin biological corridor and El Tepozteco National Park, so the forest around it is part of what you come for.