Paso del Toro

Paso del Toro is one of the larger communities in the municipality of Medellín de Bravo: with 5,787 people in the 2020 census it ranks fourth among the municipality's 192 localities. It lies on the Sotavento coastal plain, less than 10 metres above sea level, on the southern edge of the Veracruz metropolitan area, to which the municipality belongs.

As its name ("bull's crossing") suggests, it is above all a place people pass through. Federal Highway 180, the Gulf coast road, runs through on its way to Alvarado and the south of the state, and Federal Highway 150 from Córdoba passes close by. Ferrosur's main railway line also crosses the area, and the bed of a disused rail line can still be traced on maps. The land around is flat and watered by the municipality's two rivers, the Jamapa and the Cotaxtla, both of which flow near the town.

The climate is hot and humid, averaging 25 °C with about 1,400 mm of rain a year. Some 7 km away is Medellín, the municipal seat, an unusually early foundation: Gonzalo de Sandoval founded it on Hernán Cortés's orders after the Noche Triste, and in 1529 Bishop Juan de Zumárraga came to open its church of San Miguel Arcángel, regarded as the second in New Spain. For a beach, Antón Lizardo is about half an hour away.