Chilapa

Chilapa is the second-largest community in the municipality of La Perla after the seat itself, with 1,736 residents in 2020. It stands at about 2,200 metres, well above the town of La Perla (around 1,620 m), on the Veracruz flank of Pico de Orizaba, Mexico's highest mountain, whose summit lies within the municipality. The name comes from the Nahuatl chilli, chile, and apan, river: "river of chiles".

At this height the climate is cold and very wet: the municipality averages about 14 °C and nearly 2,430 mm of rain a year, and its streams feed the Jamapa, Atoyac and Cotaxtla rivers. The forest is red pine, Mexican white pine, oak and sacred fir, home to raccoons, badgers, foxes and gophers. Since 1937 the upper mountain has been Pico de Orizaba National Park, a protected area of 19,750 hectares that La Perla shares with seven other municipalities. More than half the municipality's land is used for crops and livestock.

The main feast is that of the Virgin of Guadalupe on 12 December, with Masses and flower offerings at the parish church in the municipal seat. Celebrations bring out Huasteca trios of quinta guitar, jarana and violin playing huapangos, corridos, couplets and décimas, and mole and barbacoa are the dishes of the day.