Xico

Xico climbs a green slope in cobbled streets of white and red houses, with the parish of Santa Maria Magdalena at the top and coffee and sugarcane country falling away below. Its fame is culinary: mole xiqueño, a dark, complex Veracruz mole thickened with local fruit and nuts, sold in paste form in every shop and served over turkey in the town's restaurants, along with verde de xonequi, chileatole and the region's coffee liqueurs. Its second attraction is a gorge: two kilometres below town, the Texolo river drops some 80 metres into a deep, fern-hung ravine crossed by an old iron bridge, with viewing platforms, a second smaller fall and pools upstream - a location well known in Mexican cinema and used by Hollywood productions in the 1980s. The town's fiesta in July, for its patron saint, brings running of bulls, flower-decorated processions and days of music. Between events, Xico is a quiet, damp, green place where the visit consists of walking the cobbles, eating mole and looking at water.

What you actually see

• The mole shops - xiqueño paste sold by the kilo.
• Cascada de Texolo - the 80-metre fall and its iron bridge.
• The cobbled centre - white walls climbing to the parish.
• The coffee country - green slopes and cane fields below.

When to go

October to May for the driest weather; July for the patronal fiesta. Mornings at the falls avoid both crowds and the afternoon cloud that often closes in.

Honest expectations

The path to the falls is steep and slippery when wet, which is often. The bull-running fiesta is not to every taste. Rain is a constant possibility in this cloud-forest belt.

Nearby

Coatepec's coffee streets are fifteen minutes north; Xalapa's museum and the Jalcomulco rafting river are within an hour.