Travel + Leisure - India & South Asia
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED
On a drive through Mexico’s diminutive central state, Tlaxcala, MICHAEL SNYDER finds a culinary and cultural bounty.
LARGELY OVERLOOKED by both foreign and domestic visitors, Tlaxcala offers insights into Mexico’s complex history that you won’t find anywhere else. Located in the country’s central plateau, or Altiplano, it’s still mostly associated with one turbulent chapter: about 500 years ago, it was a highly organised city-state that allied with the Spanish in their attack on Tenochtitlán, centre of the Aztec empire and the site of modern-day Mexico City.
Today, Tlaxcala’s fertile valleys are studded with pre-Hispanic ruins, Baroque churches, rural communities that continue to use ancient agricultural techniques, and haciendas once dedicated to the production of pulque, the fermented agave drink.
In September 2021, I spent four days driving through most of the state, but any stretch of the trip can be isolated into a weekend break from Mexico City, which is about two hours away by car. You can also use any of the hotels as a base from which to make day trips to the other destinations.
DAY 1: TLAXCALA CITY
Pick up a car in Mexico City and drive out over the foothills of Popocatépetl—one of the two great volcanoes in the capital’s southeastern corner. Head towards Tlaxcala City, stopping en route to see the spectacular murals at Cacaxtla, an archaeological site with 1,000-year-old ruins. Before delving into Tlaxcala’s historic centre, dotted with buildings from the 16th to 19th centuries, stop for breakfast at the Modernist Mercado Emilio Sánchez Piedras (entrance on Avda. Alonso Escalona). Taste quesadillas sold from baskets in the second-to-last aisle and homemade moles and adobos scooped from big, enamelled pots a few paces away.
In the plaza behind the 18th-century
Parroquia de San José (4 Calle 1 de Mayo), visit El Compa food cart for tacos de canasta, or “basket tacos,” a speciality of the nearby village of San Vicente Xiloxochitla. Then try the
Cacao Frank food cart, where Doña Francisca Romero serves delicious agua de barranca, a foam-topped drink of toasted and ground corn, cacao, fava beans, cinnamon, and anise.
Once refreshed, walk over to the
UNESCO-listed Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (entrance via Plaza Xochitencatl) to see its majestic Baroque altarpieces and carved wooden ceiling in the Spanish Mudejar style, which combines elements of Gothic and
Islamic architectures. Farther uphill, the Basilica of Ocotlán (Privada del Norte), begun in 1670, is a high point of the Tlaxcalteca Baroque style.
At the unassuming cantina Piensa en Mi (piensaenmimx.com), owners Rodrigo Cruz Cruz and Sharim Cortés Holten serve artisanal beer and a rotating selection of snacks, like pitchperfect birria and chamorro (braised pork shank). End the day at Molino de los Reyes (doubles from `23,521; molinodelosreyes.com), a charming eight-room hotel in an 18th-century wheat mill just outside of town.
DAY 2: TLAXCALA CITY TO TERRENATE
After beginning the day with simple, satisfying artisanal breads from Molino’s wood-burning oven, drive east to Contla, a village known for textiles that has been absorbed into the city’s sprawl.
Visit the workshop of fourthgeneration weaver Ignacio Netzahualcoyotl (netzahualcoyotl. org). He and a small team of dyers and weavers craft contemporary rugs, shawls, and elaborate serapes using pedal looms. (Though usually associated with the northern city of Saltillo, serape weaving likely originated in Tlaxcala.)
From Contla, drive southeast to Huamantla. The town’s central plaza is an ideal spot to grab a quick snack of ice cream and mueganos, the wheatand-cane-sugar fritters.
Continue south to Ixtenco, a traditional Otomí community, for lunch in the humble kitchen of the Baltazar family, whose cooking has its roots in the milpa, a pre-Hispanic farming system built around the symbiotic relationship between corn, squash, and beans. (A visit can be prearranged with the help of culinary historian Irad Santacruz via direct message on Instagram at @irad_santacruz.)
After lunch, drive north to the 17th-century Hacienda Tenexac (doubles from `10,243; hacienda tenexac.com), in Terrenate, which is still inhabited by descendants of the family that bought the property in the late 1800s. Spend a peaceful night in
one of four rustic cabins, and drink in the pastoral calm of a distant century.
DAY 3 TERRENATE TO ATLANGATEPEC
Following a nourishing breakfast prepared by Tenexac’s charismatic steward, Paz Yano Bretón, join her for a tour of the residential quarters, which are crowded with eclectic furnishings and keepsakes accumulated over the past 200 years. Spend the rest of the morning relaxing on the grass or strolling the hacienda’s sprawling, wildflower-dusted grounds before heading west to the industrial city of Apizaco for lunch at Evoka (entrées `759–`1,669; evoka.com.mx). Chef Francisco Molina serves impeccable renditions of regional specialities— think heirloom-corn tostadas with whipped pulque butter or a delicate bean tamale nestled in a rich, oat-based mole—in an elegant, minimalist room endearingly out of sync with the spare concrete streetscape outside.
A short drive north takes you into open fields abutting the highlands of the Sierra Madre Oriental that separates the Altiplano from the Gulf of Mexico. A winding dirt road leads to the two-year-old JapoNeza Retreat (doubles from `21,245; fb.com/japoneza retreat), whose Japanese-influenced guest rooms open onto spectacular views of the Atlangatepec lagoon and the cone of La Malinche, a dormant volcano named for the guide and consort of Hernán Cortés, the Spanish military commander.
DAY 4: ATLANGATEPEC TO MEXICO CITY
Wake at dawn for a mild 40-minute hike to the top of a hill behind the retreat. As the sun rises, marvel at the grandeur of Popocatépetl and its snowcapped twin, the dormant