Orizaba is a city of about 100,000 people, located in the mountains of western Veracruz state. It is the closest city to Pico de Orizaba, the tallest peak in Mexico. It's a quiet city, surrounded by mountains. The temperature is cool, and the mornings are foggy.

Just west of the town there is a hill called Cerro del Barrego. It is a strenuous climb to the top, though it seems to be the preferred recreational activity for hundreds of Orizabans. (And once they get to the top, they lift weights. There's a gym up there!) From the top of the hill you get some beautiful views of the town, and you can see the snow-capped peak of Mt. Orizaba from roughly 30 miles away (Sorry folks, my pictures of the mountain did not turn out, but you can see some scenic shots of the city below).

Orizaba also has a good art museum, the Museo de Arte del Estado, which features a lot of landscape paintings of Veracruz by Mexican luminaries like Jose Maria Velasco.

One thing Orizaba does not have is a lot of restaurants. It was really hard to find a place to eat here! I had to eat at an Italian restaurant. Well, at least they had a big, modern, clean supermarket, which a lot of towns in Mexico don't have.

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