Page:Appleton's Guide to Mexico.djvu/197

Rh Esperanza. A horse-railroad extends from the latter place to Tehuacan, thirty-one miles distant. A diligence is then run to Tecomabapa, about forty miles farther. Thence the tourist must travel by horseback via the villages of Teotitlan, Cues, Dominguillo, Joyacatlan, San Juan, and Etla, to Oaxaca, about ninety miles distant. Tehuacan (Hotels, Diligencias and Ferrocarril) has a population of 10,000. The traveler is advised to procure horses in this place. There is a meson (inn) at Tecomabapa, but the other settlements being very small are destitute of hotel accommodations. The nights must be spent in the huts of the natives. Parties making this trip are advised to carry provisions with them. The Mexican Southern Railroad will eventually connect Tehuacan with Oaxaca. The latter city is described in Section VII, and the reader is referred to the chapter on ruins in Part First for an account of Mitla.

Leaving Esperanza, the' traveler sees the snow-capped summits of Popocatepetl and Iztacciliuatl on the left, and the pyramidal peak of Malinche on the extreme right. The landscape reminds him of the parks of Colorado. The railroad crosses the broad plain, and the station of San Andres (126¼ miles) is reached. Horse-cars run to the town, about five miles distant. It has already been stated that the volcano of Orizaba may be ascended from this point (p. 168). The summit is about fifteen miles distant.

The train now passes some maize-fields and the salt lakes of El Salado, and arrives at Rinconada (139 miles), elevation 7,731 feet. The country soon becomes fertile again, and the next station is San Marcos (150¼ miles). Another railway crosses the track here, extending to Puebla on the south, and to San Juan de Llanos on the north. It will be completed in the autumn of 1883. Proceeding farther,