Pajapan

Pajapan is the seat of a Nahua municipality in southern Veracruz, on the lower slopes of the Sierra de Santa Marta at about 180 metres above sea level, with a little over 10,000 residents. Nahuatl is still spoken here, and the town's name comes from it. The climate is hot and very humid, with more than 2,400 mm of rain a year, and winter northerlies hit the coast hard. Behind the town rise the San Martín Pajapan and Pelón volcanoes, wrapped in tall rainforest.

What sets Pajapan apart is its land history. Between 1884 and 1886 the Nahuas split their communal land into five lots of 300 hectares each, a condueñazgo that kept collective ownership alive within the agrarian law of the day. In 1898 Minzapan became a congregation of Pajapan. Today people live from maize, plantain, Persian lime, mango, cattle and fishing.

The places to visit are on the coast and the lagoon. Laguna del Ostión, shared with Coatzacoalcos and open to the Gulf, is ringed with mangroves; Jicacal has thatched palapas, restaurants and a beach, and Sayultepec has a sea-turtle conservation camp. Look for garlic shrimp, fried mojarra and oysters. Town cooking includes taxgouil (fried pork with beans) and tatónil (meat in nixtamalised corn dough with achiote). Local crafts are woven baskets, clay comales and carved wooden figures. In the town centre a lookout is reached by 218 steps.