The offices for the Tehuacan-Cuicatlan Reserve are in Tehuacan. This reserve extends from the state of Puebla into northern Oaxaca and is a mix of desert and forested regions. On Saturday, I went to Zapotitlan where one of the volunteers for the reserve lives. Unlike protected areas in the US, Reservas de la Biosfera in Mexico have people and town within their borders, Zapotitlan is one of these towns. We first went to the town’s botanic gardens and then from there headed out the back of the garden, down to a dry river bed (we’re still in the dry season) which we followed for a while, and finally up a hill to see some basaltic prisms. The landscape in Zapo is spectacular with as far as you can see covered with tall straight cactus. The reserve has an amazing diversity of cactus and a lot of endemic species. Later we came back down the hill and followed the dry river bed all the way to town. The sun and heat were pretty intense on Saturday and being in a dry river bed with cracked, baked, ground does not help cool down at all. It was about all we could do to collapse on the couch and wait for the heat to break after the hike.
Sunday was spent in Tehuacan and then Monday morning 5 of us hopped in one of the reserve trucks and headed for Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz. The drive passes Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s tallest peak and the volcano Cofre de Perote. The NGO offices are actually in Coatepec, a small town about 5 miles outside of Xalapa and the heart of the Veracruz coffee-growing region. Every 3rd shop in town sells coffee and the smell of roasting coffee is everywhere.
We ended up staying in an old hacienda about 3 miles outside of town that was filled with gardens, fountains, lush tropical vegetation and flowers (and coffee plants), and tons of mosquitoes. The mosquitoes though are a little different then the normal ones and so when they bite you they leave a large red swollen lump with a red dot (basically a blood blister) in the middle. For some reason they loved me and within an hour my legs were covered to the point that I looked like I had chicken pox or some other strange illness. The hacienda was very cool since part is restored and part is left basically as ruins, complete with the old water wheel that used to help the hacienda function as a mill.
Tuesday we had another meeting in Coatepec and then went to the Institute of Ecology. We didn’t have much time there, but were able to walk around their botanic garden for a little while. Then we went to Xalapa to finish up some other trip business at the municipal palace and finally I headed to the bus station to find a bus for Puebla. 
