Well you have feet, don't you? Getting around the city of Orizaba couldn't be easier. Taxis are readily available and very cheap, fares are only a few pesos from anywhere to anywhere in town. The cheapest way to get around of course, is to walk. The compact size of the mountain climbing-based city allows you to stroll casually between many locations in a matter of minutes, especially in and around downtown.

The city is divided into quadrants by MADERO, a street which runs North and South and COLON, a street which runs East and West. The streets to the West of Madero, paralleling Colon are named Ponientes. The ponientes to the north (the northwest quadrant) have even numbers; two, four, six, eight, etc.; while the ponientes to the south (the southwest quadrant) have odd numbers, three, five, seven, nine, etc. When the ponientes cross Madero they become Orientes. The orientes have odd numbers north of Colon and even numbers to the south of Colon. In the other direction (North and South) are the streets named Norte, that have odd numbers to the West of Madero (the northwest quadrant), and even numbers to the East of Madero (the northeast quadrant). The streets called Norte become Sur when they cross Colon, and have even numbers in the southwest quadrant, but odd numbers in the southeast quadrant.

The Parque de Castillo, marking the city's hub, contains the Parish Church of San Miguel, while the Rio de Orizaba (Orizaba River) ambles serpent-like through the city's western half. A ten-block square area encompasses more than 90% of Orizaba's majesty, excepting volcano-related places and activities. If the city layout sounds complicated, relax, about five seconds with a city map and you'll be all clear. A decent map will be found in the telephone directory at your hotel. It's all you'll need. Some hotels have simple maps that you can take with you.

Be sure to check out my other articles in the two continuing series: Teaching English in Mexico and Traveling in Mexico. If you would like more information, have questions or comments, the author can be e-mailed; see address below.

Larry M. Lynch

Larry M. Lynch is an American English Language Specialist, ELT professor, TOEFL Examiner and EFL Teacher Trainer at the Santiago de Cali University with 15 years teaching experience in Latin America, the USA and Europe. He has presented plenary sessions, seminars, workshops and teacher training sessions at numerous TEFL conferences and educational institutions and holds a post-graduate diploma in TESOL from the Trinity College – London (UK). He also holds CELTA, DELTA and Business English teaching certifications from England, Spain and the USA and has taught EFL at the secondary, university undergraduate and post-graduate levels in Cali for the past 11 years. An active ELT academic researcher and prolific author, he has more than 340 current articles, presentations, academic papers, books, reference works, workshops and publications related to TESOL or English language-learning & acquisition worldwide along with extensive experience in Testing, CALL, curriculum review and course development including development of alternative methods of evaluation and assessment online and using multi-modal didactic techniques.