Mexico » Travel Photography » Pueblos Mágicos: Tepoztlán

Welcome to the first in a series where we’ll take a stroll through the numerous Pueblos Mágicos that can be found throughout Mexico. These “magic towns” are a curated list of the top 100+ particularly vibrant, artistic, interesting, beautiful communities, designed to increase Mexico’s tourism for both locals and foreigners.

Today we’re taking a closer look at Tepoztlán, Morelos: a colorful small town surrounded by the treacherous but impressive Tepozteco mountain, a formation like nothing I’d seen in person before. We had a strange, surreal experience during the few hours we spent exploring the town.

Tepoztlán has a modest population of 14,000 people, but it’s a popular tourist destination for those residing in Mexico City (about 90 minutes to the north) or Cuernavaca (about 40 minutes to the south-west). We included Tepoztlán as a “must see” stop on our road trip map, because I’d read about El Tepozteco pyramid temple nestled in the mountains high above the town: a small temple dedicated to Tepoztēcatl, the Aztec god of the alcoholic beverage ‘pulque’. If you ever get a chance to try a mug of pulque, don’t miss the opportunity.

The day started like any other on our whirlwind road trip. We got up, ate breakfast, got coffee on the road, then set out on the short drive to Tepoztlán from Cuernavaca. As we drove, I read about the history of the area and the timeline of the town’s settlement. I was particularly looking forward to seeing this archeological zone because, although it’s a small area consisting of one temple, it has an absolutely breathtaking view of the town below. I was ready for a steep hike!

In this first photo, you can see the temple way up in the Tepozteco mountain! It’s about a third of the way from the right, against the white clouds, and has straight edges, in contrast to the curvy, bulbous mountain formation.

This is one of my favorite photos, because it takes a second to figure out what you’re looking at. Obviously the left half of the frame contains a view of the real Tepozteco mountain, but the restaurant on the right has (nearly) perfectly disguised themselves into the landscape, with a mural of the mountain range and foliage covering the side of their building!

The town was full of cute streets, full of shops and restaurants, food carts, and a large outdoor market in the center of town. Here you can see Evan wearing the latest fashion for photographer’s husbands: their pink floral purses.

One of the small town’s many churches, Iglesia de San Miguel de Arcangel is also one of the oldest, built in the 16th to 17th century. It was built “by order of Martín Cortés, son of the Spaniard Hernán Cortés”, who, according to Tepozteco historians, had the church built in front of his house so he could listen to mass from his balcony. Very interestingly, this site suggests that the many churches in Tepoztlán “may have been built on pyramidal bases, since that area was a very large settlement of what were the pre-Hispanic cultures at that time.” We know for certain that the Spanish very often built churches on top of ancient sites throughout Mexico, but more on that in future pyramid photo blogs!

This is when the strange surprise started to set in. Tepozteco mountain appeared to be smoking.

The longer we strolled through the town, the more billowing the smoke became, rising from the mountains, and slowly filling the sky. Concerned, we stopped and spoke with a number of Tepoztlán residents, and some Policía. They all assured us that it happens nearly every year towards the end of the dry season, and while it looks ominous, it was normal for the underbrush to burn. Having done a lot of reading about forest management, we’re aware that letting the underbrush burn periodically is nature’s way of keeping forest fires manageable, as opposed to tree-engulfing. So we continued on our exploration.

I should note, in case it’s not obvious: We weren’t allowed to Tepozteco temple, as the mountain was closed due to the fire.

I’m sure it comes as no surprise to learn that I’m collecting photos of Mexico’s chickens and dogs, for an as-yet-to-be-determined photo book project. Do people still even make coffee table books? This particular dog was a very sweet mop-like fellow. We gave him some really good scratches, after he came sauntering very slowly down the cobblestone street, intent on befriending Evan.

Success!

We noticed much of the blue had disappeared from the sky, replaced by thick smoke.

The fire on the mountain seemed to be getting much bigger, and we could start to see flames.

About this time, we started to suspect that this might be more than their annual underbrush burn, so I started documenting the growing burn area and continuously increasing flames, as best as I could with the lens I had on hand.

About a week later, while reading a Mexico news roundup, I stumbled across an article about the Tepozteco mountain fire: It’s still under investigation, but at that time, they had a suspect in custody for possible arson. Apparently this person had attempted arson on the mountain before. In response, they decided to close Tepozteco mountain and archeological zone for five years!!! But, in doing further reading for this photo blog, that timeframe has been potentially reduced to two months. Still, it was a wild experience. I sincerely hope Tepozteco mountain can be restored to its natural state, and allow visitors to the mountain temple once again soon.

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Dani & Evan Benton | Benton Homestead | www.bentonhomestead.com
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