Huamantla to Tula

Tags: Hidalgo, Mexico, Tula

Date: June 12, 2024

After our stay at the hacienda near the volcano Malinche, we continued north. On the way we passed another volcano, Popocatépetl or El Popo, as the Mexicans call it:

The picture was taken through the car window while driving along the federal highway and the air visibility was quite low but it is still possible to see that the volcano is smoking. Popocatépetl is one of the most active volcanoes in Mexico and has had more than 15 major eruptions since the arrival of the Spanish in 1519. There seems to be minor eruptions almost continuously: the last eruption was in February this year and the one before that was in May 2023. Some of you may have heard of cancelled flights from Tapachula to Mexico City due to a volcano eruption and a subsequent 21 hours bus ride to Mexico City in May 2023 to catch a flight to Copenhagen — Popocatépetl was the culprit! Popocatépetl comes from the Nahuatl words popōca tepētl, meaning Smoking Mountain.

That day we were driving to Querétaro, where we had borrowed an apartment from some sailors we met in the Sea of Cortez earlier in the year. On the way we decided to make a short stop in Tula National Park which houses an archaeological site.

The National Park part features some of the typical flora of the area, agave, yucas and cactuses. Here is one with fruits:

These fruits are probably what is called prickly pears.

Félicie in front of a tree-like cactus with high columnar cactuses in the background:

Some of the cactuses were in bloom:

A orange cactus flower:

The part of the park we visited was on top of a hill and had a nice view of the surprisingly lush and green surroundings:

The bridge is a railroad bridge and we did see quite a few very long freight trains.

In the middle of the park was this house surrounded by a cactus and agave garden and with a very large yucca tree, probably a Joshua tree, in the front:

A very large barrel cactus with yellow flowers:

These smaller barrel cactuses look a bit like Morrocan poufs:

However, don't make the mistake of sitting down on one: