Getting Around in Tepoztlán
Tepoztlán is a small city of population 50,000. Its size allows for mostly walking, and you can travel this way from one end to the other in an hour. Public transportation, as in most of Mexico, is abundant and cheap.
The photo above is near the main intersection in the center of town (Centro). How many different types of transport can you see? I counted five: taxi, car, motorcycle, bus, and walking. Four wheel ATVs have become very popular. Combis, or minibuses, are used widely. Occasionally I've seen someone riding a bicycle, and even less common, a horse.
Getting to Tepoztlán from the Airport
There are several ways to get to Tepoztlán from the Mexico City airport. Uber or taxi are the least complicated and most expensive. The ride takes about an hour and a half. There are taxis but no Uber for the return trip.
Buses to Cuernavaca leave frequently. From there you can take a taxi to Tepoztlán.
Alternatively, you can get an Uber or taxi from the airport to the southern bus terminal in Mexico City called Taxqueña, where a direct bus leaves every 45 mintues.
The bus/taxi combinations take about two hours in total.
If you are brave, you can take the Metro to the south terminal, but you will need to make two changes. For this method, it best not to have any luggage. This is the cheapest, but I do not advise it.
Here is the main bus terminal in Tepoztlán, just off the highway with the city's only gas station nearby. There is one direct bus a day leaving this terminal to the airport at seven in the morning. If you can plan your outgoing flight to coincide with this bus, that's a benefit. But get your tickets a day in advance.
Road Infrastructure
The streets are mostly cobblestone, which looks pleasing, but are not easy surfaces to drive on, especially with a bicycle. And there are many hills. Here is a short video showing how bumpy many streets are, and loaded with potholes.
The stripe of rocks in the following picture is a speed bump, known here as a tope. The locals call them "dead policemen." Normally they are considerably more elevated than this one. My first experience of a tope, shortly after I drove here from the US, was while driving on a secondary highway enjoying the scenery. Suddenly I hit one hard. This brought a realization that I needed to be more aware and slow down as needed, not just looking at the mountains. In my first memoir, The Bumpy Road (available on Amazon and on lulu.com), this was a metaphor for the many bumps I received on my life's path.
Besides the topes, there are other situations slowing traffic. Once and a while I enjoy seeing a herd of cows or horeses on the road. Funeral processions go along a main street to get to the cemetery. And then there are areas of ongoing construction.
Most of the streets are narrow. This necessitates planning a block in advance, along with patience and reciprocity. If someone is coming ahead, you may need to stop and wait until they pass. Weekend tourists, driving from Mexico City, are not familiar with this style of driving, and often create traffic jams. Once in a while, I've sat in a combi or taxi, waiting for up to ten minutes for traffic to unsnarl. Here is a reel taken from a combi on a very narrow street. This time the driver had a straight access as no other vehicle was coming from the opposite direction.
Forms of Travel
The most basic form of getting around in Tepoztlán is on foot--walking. All of the images from my blog series on neighborhoods were made while walking. The next article will cover Barrio Santa Cruz, which is adjacent to Centro. Here are several nature trails not far from Centro. The trail to the Tepozteco pyramid is the most popular.
Buses and combis go to the outlying villages, and there is bus going directly to Cuernavaca every half hour. The costs are minimal. Here are some photos of the place where most of the buses start.
The most popular form of travel are the combis (minibuses). Just around the corner from where the buses congregate is the main combi terminal. As you can see, it is a busy place.
Here is one that goes through my neighborhood.
Taxis are plentiful and very cheap. As of the date of this article, the lowest cost in USD is $3.50. The price goes up for longer distances or late at night. One way to get a taxi is to send them a text on WhatsApp, which is used very commonly in Tepoztlán. They always respond immediately, telling you the number of your cab. Scattered around town are taxi sitios (sites) where taxis wait to get calls to locations nearby. One can also go to one of those sites, or just hail a cab passing by on any street. Unlike Mexico City, there are no pirate cabs. There you always call or go to a sitio, never hail a taxi from the street.
There are a lot of motorcycles, and food deliveries by them have become very common since the lockdwon days of covid. Bicycles are here, but not common, as the streets are too bumpy and there are too many steep hills. Four-wheeled open ATVs have become very popular. Some neighborhoods have tried to limit them, as they are very loud. Here is a rental booth.
Of course, many people have their own vehicles. During my first few years here, I had a VW hatchback that I had driven from the US. It was a good way to meet people. I helped haul things and made new friends. And I did some touring in nearby villages, towns, and to archeological sites. But I ran out of funds to support it. Given the bumpy cobblestoned streets, it needed tires and alignments constantly.
The price of gas here is about the same as in the US, and the highway tolls are high. Then there are repair and maintenance costs, plus insurance, and etc. These are the prices one pays for independence from public transportation routes and scheduling. I was so happy to sell my car, although I had to make a special deal to do it. A car from the US cannot be leagally sold in Mexico, but my car stayed local, delivering tortillas for another three years with its new owner.
Here is one of the rarer ways of travel--by horse. There is a contingency of local mountain police that I spot occasionally. Their horses are in the second photo below.
There are other odd and assorted ways of getting around, like this one.
Happy landings!
