Zacatlán

Zacatlán is an historic small town in the northern reaches of Puebla, Mexico. The area around town is hilly as the town lies in an area of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range that's locally known as the Sierra Norte. It's an area surrounded in apple orchards, eventually giving way to mountain forests, streams and even a few waterfalls. The town displays a lot of colonial charm, with a beautiful town square, a 16th-century church, cobblestone streets, and a propensity for red tile roofs. Clocks are a big thing here, owing to the presence of a company making "monumental" clocks (think big clocks!)

Understand
The city takes its name from the first known settlers, the Zacateca people, who moved here in 583 AD. In the 12th century, they experienced a minor wave of immigration from Chichimecs, Olmecas, and Toltecs. In the late 15th century, the town was invaded by the Aztecs (Mexicas) and was forced to pay tribute to the Triple Alliance until the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. The first Spanish governor was Hernán López de Avila, in 1522. One of his first acts was to round up most of the indigenous people and move them to Tenamitac, then 40 years later, turn around and move them back to Zacatlán, by which time Franciscan monks had shown up to start civilizing the natives through Christian gospel and plenty of hard work building a monastery to support even more monks. That first monastery was the Ex-convento San Pedro, established in 1562 (still the town's main church).

The town's first apple trees were planted in the early 1600s, and have flourished ever since. Zacatlán is sometimes referred to as Zacatlán de las Manzanas.

The town manufactured guns during the Mexican War of Independence. It served as the Puebla state capital for a period during the 19th century. The town is one of Mexico's Pueblos Magicos.

In 2010, it was home to 34,000 people.

Landscape
There are 14 mountains within a half-hour drive of town. Many of these offer outstanding hiking and rappelling opportunities. A number of rivers and streams flow from these mountains, including the Rio Ajajalpan, which flows through Zacatlán and is a main tributary for the Rio Tecolutla. Where there's mountains and rivers, there's often waterfalls, and that is certainly the case in Zacatlan. The largest local waterfall is Cascada Tulimán, which drops 250 to 300 meters. Zacatlán is blessed with cool weather most of the year and frequent rainfalls all year round. Most mornings and late evenings are foggy and photographers can often get some amazing fog shrouded photos of local landmarks if they get out early enough. Los Jilgueros ravine provides a lot of natural scenery right in town and there's even a small waterfall there.

By bus
From Mexico City, ATAH has 2 direct buses daily to Zacatlan and several more that connect in Apizaco. It's a 3-hour ride and will cost from M$100 to M$400 depending on bus class and demand. Buses depart from Mexico City's TAPO bus terminal. ATAH operates hourly buses from Puebla's CAPU bus terminal to Zacatlan. The 2½ hour trip costs M$60 to M$400 (depending on time and class). Combis operate between Apizaco and Zacatlan. Futura also operates buses to Zacatlan, leaving Mexico City from Central Autobuses del Norte.



Get around
Zacatlan is a compact, easily walkable city, but you'll want to use a taxi for some of the outlying attractions, such as waterfalls. A taxi sitio in el Centro on Av. Luis Cabrera Lobato near the zocalo.

See








Festivals

 * Feria de la Manzana - week long festival held in August each year since 1941, lots of food, regional folk dances (and danzon, a local favorite), symphony performances, and concerts by some of the biggest names in latin music (past performers included Juan Gabriel, Alejandro Fernández, Aleks Syntek and Grupo Elefante). In addition to thousands of crates of apples, there's also plums and pears (Mom always said to eat a balanced diet).


 * Festival de la Sidra - where there's apples, there's bound to be cider, and Zacatlán produces more than a million bottles of the sweet elixir each year. The Cider Festival takes place in November.


 * Festival Cuaxochitl- each May, the historically indigenous villages around Zacatlan get together for an annual festival of historic cultural activities, traditions, and to hobnob with fellow speakers of Nahuatl and other indigenous languages. Indigenous folk crafts are displayed (and sold) and indigenous foods are available.

Eat
Everything great about Puebla's regional cuisine can be found in Zacatlan, but the town also has some niche specialties of its own. Zacatlan is known regionally for their empanadas, or other wrapped pastries, filled with cheese. Look for things like apastelada con queso, picado con queso, and similar varieties. Ask the server if you want to know the differences between the varieties (or just try one and let your tongue tell the true story).

Sleep
In addition to standard hotels, there are many cabins for rent in the canyon as well as places to camp (or glamp).

Go next

 * Chignahuapan
 * Xicotopec
 * Huachinango