Sunday I had intended to drive to Hautusco, a town of about 30,000 a couple hours South of here. So off I went toward Coatepec, turning just before entering the city, following the sign to Cordova. However, I didn’t encounter additional signs directing me and eventually ended up in Las Trancas, at the opposite side of Xalapa from where I had left.
If I had looked at the Xalapa map I had with me, which I didn’t do until I had arrived home, I would have learned that the road to Jacomulco, with which I am familiar, leads to Hautusco. One of my frequent dumb ass moments.
Arriving back in Xalapa I drove through town and again headed for Coatepec. I had decided to drive to Teocelo and ask as to the route to Hautusco, which I thought I could reach from Teocelo.
Arriving in Teocelo I headed toward the bar at which I had stopped the other day to ask directions. The proprietor, Senor Crescencio (Chencho, as he said most folks call him) Martinez, was tending the bar and talking to his son Carlos.
I ordered a Negra Modelo and asked the gentlemen how I would go to Hautusco. Carlos asked his father for a sheet of paper and drew me a detailed map, not only showing the route to Hautusco but the routes to all of the area pueblos as well. He also told me that the name Teocelo derives from Teo Ocelotl of the indigenous Nahualtl language, which in Spanish is Dios Tigre and in English God Tiger.
Senor Crescencio informed me one of his other sons is selling a small rancho in Texin, not far from Teocelo along the road to Cosautlan, and gave me his son’s name and phone number. I plan to contact his son to arrange to look at the property.
