Tultitlán, Mexico

Tultitlán is a small city north of Mexico City (but within its metropolitan area), in the state of Mexico, in Mexico.

There’s nothing special about it but it dated back to 15,000 years ago and is one of the oldest human settlements in continuous occupation in the Americas as a result. It has a nice but small town centre but I mostly went for the Templo Santa Muerte, a “church” (mostly a shop) dedicated to the Mexican folk saint, Holy Death or Saint Death. She’s a mix between Catholicism and the Native Amnerican goddess of death, originated from the Mexico City barrio Tepito.

Despite condemnation from His Holiness The Pope Francis I, Sovereign of the Vatican City, she has tens of millions of followers in Mexico and beyond.

Amealco, Queretaro, Mexico

Amealco is a small town designated as a “pueblo magico” in the state of Queretaro in Mexico, near the city of San Juan del Rio.

To get there, I took a Pegasso bus (Coordinados also goes there) for more than 3 hours (almost MXN$300) from the northern bus terminal of Mexico City. The abandoned church ruins are in another nearby town San Ildefonso and it’s 25 minutes away (MXN$20) by combi from Amealco’s combi terminal near the municipal market.

The town is known as the birthplace of the Mexican doll although its origin actually was somewhere nearby instead. Amealco, however, is the biggest producer of the dolls in the country and has the only museum (very small, only 2 exhibition halls, but there’s also a bone of a mammoth at the back) dedicated to it in the country.

Amealco is otherwise not particularly interesting although the town centre is nice.

The old abandoned church is around 15 minutes away on foot from the main road I was dropped off, and there’s no real path/road getting there. It’s surrounded by fields and I had to walk through picky plants to get there. It’s small and empty but still an interesting sight.

Tehuacán, Puebla, Mexico

Tehuacán is the second-largest city of Puebla, known also for its pyramids. It’s 4 hours by bus from the Tapo terminal in Mexico City, and more than 2 hours away by bus from Tepeaca in Puebla as well (direct bus from Puebla would be 2 hours).

I tried going to the pyramid and the taxi driver quoted me MXN$250 for the trip with an hour of waiting in between. There was also a nice view of the city up there.

Tepeaca, Puebla, Mexico

Tepeaca is a small town near Puebla City (around 1 hour and 15 minutes by indirect bus from CAPU terminal – MXN$25), on the way to Tecali among many other smaller towns. There’s also an indirect bus from there all the way to Tehuacán, Puebla’s second-largest city (2 hours+, MXN$60, AU bus with the brand Valles). The bus itself was quite tricky to find – I had to just sneak into the boarding area (the bus company doesn’t seem to have a waiting hall or a stall) all the way to the No 101 gate to find the ticket office, where I could buy a ticket on the spot. There are also a lot of buses and combi vans in Tepeaca, so the way forward was also not that simple as there are a number of sites where they stop by. The buses to Tehuacán pass by the bus stops right at the main square.

The town itself isn’t very big or interesting, and it’s best known for its image of Jesus Christ as a baby but also a doctor. Its historic centre has some nice buildings and there’s a viewpoint on a nearby hill.