Regional discussion and conditions reports for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Please post partners requests and trip plans in the Mexico Climbing Partners section.
I believe its called Citlaltepetl. Citlal is a star. From a distance the snow cap looks like a shining star on the horizon. Tepetl, or tepic is a hill or mountain. Any mountain that big deserves many names, it can be seen from many locations that speak different Nauhuatl dialects.
When I went there, local people talked also about Venus, and I understood that "Citlatepetl" meant the "Peak of Eastern Star", as they can see Venus rising above the Orizaba.
I was also told that, according to a Nahuatl legend, the God Quetzalcoatl was burried at the summit of the Peak ( of course, every high mountain on this planet is home of a local god ). Is the Pico of orizaba "young" enough to have erupted during man occupation of the country, so that first inhabitants could see a star ( volcanic shining lava ) at the summit????