Comala

Comala is painted entirely white with red trim, by ordinance, and the effect under the twin volcanoes - the smoking Volcan de Fuego and the snow-dusted Nevado de Colima - is what put it on postcards. The plaza is the town's living room: arcaded portales on two sides where restaurants serve botanas, small plates that keep arriving free while the ponche - a fruit liqueur made locally in tamarind, coffee, guava and a dozen more flavours - keeps being ordered, with mariachi and banda alternating from mid-afternoon into the evening. Juan Rulfo made the name literary; his 1955 novel Pedro Paramo sets its ghost-haunted village in a Comala of the imagination, and Mexican readers arrive half-expecting whispers. Around the town, the ex-haciendas of San Antonio and Nogueras carry coffee-era architecture, the latter housing the museum of Alejandro Rangel Hidalgo, whose illustrated Christmas cards made the region famous abroad; the Suchitlan villages make masks and pottery, and the volcano lookouts are half an hour up the road.

What you actually see

• The white plaza - portales, red trim and volcano backdrop.
• The botana tradition - free plates with the ponche rounds.
• The ex-haciendas - San Antonio's arches and Nogueras's museum.
• The Rulfo association - the literary Comala of Pedro Paramo.

When to go

November to April for clear volcano views; afternoons into the evening for the plaza at full swing, especially Sundays when families fill the portales.

Honest expectations

The botana system means the drinks pay for the food - budget accordingly and pace the ponche, which is stronger than it tastes. Volcano views depend on cloud, often clearing at dawn and closing by noon. The village is small; the volcano road extends the day.

Nearby

The Colima volcano lookouts lie half an hour north; Colima city's museums and Suchitlan's mask makers are minutes away.