Papantla

Papantla lies among the warm hills of Totonacapan, inland from the Gulf of Mexico. The region is associated with the vanilla orchid, whose fragrant pods were gathered by Totonac people in the wooded hills. By the eighteenth century gatherers sold vanilla in Papantla to buyers who cured the pods. The town is also known for the ritual of the flying dancers, a ceremony with roots in the pre-Hispanic world.