San Isidro el Berro

Driving up to El Berro, as it is known locally, you leave the Orizaba valley behind and enter another climate. The village sits about 2,600 metres above sea level on the southern foothills of Citlaltépetl, the Pico de Orizaba volcano, and the yearly average temperature is barely above 12 °C. Snow is still rare: the heaviest fall on record since 1970 was a single centimetre on 5 March 1987. Around it are forests of ayacahuite (Mexican white pine) and ocozote (sweetgum), and fields worked into the slopes.

The full name honours its patron, Saint Isidore the Farmer, protector of country people, and the village church is dedicated to him. It has grown fast, from 876 people in 2005 to 1,219 in 2010 and 1,645 in 2020, and is now the sixth largest of the municipality's 50 localities. It is also one of the most isolated: in 2020 only one house in three had a mobile phone and almost none had internet, so do not count on a signal.

Mariano Escobedo, called Jesús María until 1932, covers the mountainous country between Orizaba and the Puebla state line. The high fields grow maize, beans, wheat, peas, potatoes and broad beans, and the streams coming down from the volcano feed the Río Blanco. In the municipal seat, the feast of Saint Joseph from 19 to 21 March brings processions, a fair and the dance of the Twelve Peers of France.