Arteaga, Coahuila

Arteaga is a remarkable cool mountain town just 14 kms outside of Saltillo. Long a bedroom community of the state capital, today it\'s very much a destination in it\'s own right. With cool and pleasant temperatures year round, it\'s comfortable and lushly forested and the austere surrounding mountains offer an inspiring view from just about everywhere in town.

Arteaga was one of the towns famously settled by people from Tlaxcala after 1580. They called it San Isidro de las Palomas and their influence across northern Mexico is felt to this day. In the mid-19th century, the town was renamed for General José María Arteaga Magallanes. He was a hero of the Reform Wars, and the USA and French Interventions, and he later became governor of Queretaro, officially known as Querétaro de Arteaga until 2010.

But Arteaga is ultimately most famous as one of very few ski destinations in Mexico. Sometimes honored as the Switzerland of Mexico, it\'s ski resorts do a thrifty business in Mexico\'s otherwise desert-like north. Surrounded by wooded landscapes, the mountain ranges are spectacular. The town itself still offers fruit and liquor made from the temperate orchards that are none to common further south, 

Recognized as a Pueblo Magico in 2012, since then the town has only drawn more and more visitors. It\'s still quite, outside of the few really big annual festivals. An Apple Fair is celebrated every year and the Feast of San Isidro is still feted each 15th of May. 

Visitors venture out to the San Isidro Canyon, the Carbonera de los Lirios, the El Salto Waterfall and the Montreal Forests. But you can stay nearer the center of town at the Venustiano Carranza Alameda, or visit the Casa Carranza, and the famous Mummy Museum. The San Isidro Temple provides a focal point for the town center, and most public activities will happen not to far off.