Los Pescados

Los Pescados sits at almost 3,000 metres on the northern flank of Cofre de Perote, about 17 km by road east of the town of Perote. With 1,694 residents in 2020 it ranks ninth among the municipality's more than ninety localities, and it takes in the Veinte de Noviembre ejido. The village sits practically on the edge of Cofre de Perote National Park, created in 1937 to protect the land above 3,000 metres.

The 4,200-metre volcano fills the view. Its lower slopes have been cleared for farming, mainly maize and potatoes, with pine and oak forest higher up. At this altitude the climate is semi-cold: the annual average is barely 10 °C, rain falls through much of the year and snow comes now and then; the heaviest fall recorded since 1970 was 3.4 cm in March 1987.

For anyone heading up the Cofre from the Perote side, Los Pescados is on the way: the road continues to El Conejo, at 3,250 metres, where the north route, the easiest one, sets off for the summit. Buses making that run from Perote carry a "Los Pescados" sign. About seven in ten homes have a mobile phone, but fewer than one in ten has internet. Down in Perote the patron saint, San Miguel, is celebrated on 29 September.