Current Time in Tepic, Mexico

Tepic is the capital of the state of Nayarit, on the Pacific side of western Mexico. The city occupies a green valley about 900 metres above sea level, watered by the Mololoa River and dominated by the twin volcanic peaks of Sanganguey and El Ceboruco on the horizon. Its elevation gives it a mild climate that contrasts sharply with the humid heat of the coastal lowlands only an hour away, and this combination of mountains, farmland and nearby beaches defines the character of the region.

With a population of roughly four hundred and thirty thousand in the municipality, Tepic is the administrative, commercial and educational heart of a state better known abroad for its coastline. Agriculture underpins the local economy, with tobacco, sugar cane, coffee, mangoes and beans grown on the fertile volcanic soils, while government, commerce, food processing and increasingly tourism provide employment in the city itself.

Spanish settlement dates from the early sixteenth century, when expeditions moving north along the Pacific used the valley as a base, and the town was formally established in the 1530s. For centuries Tepic was a staging post on the route to the northwest and to the port of San Blas, from which ships sailed to the Californias and the Philippines. It belonged to the state of Jalisco until 1917, when Nayarit became a separate state with Tepic as its capital, a change that accelerated the city's growth through the twentieth century.

The centre is pleasantly compact. The neo-Gothic cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, with its two tall spires, faces the main square across from the nineteenth-century Palacio Municipal, and a short walk away stands the former convent of the Cross of Grass, built around a natural cross-shaped growth of grass that has long attracted pilgrims. Museums occupy several colonial mansions, including the birthplace of the poet Amado Nervo, one of Mexico's most beloved literary figures, and the Regional Museum of Nayarit, which displays shaft-tomb figures from the ancient cultures of western Mexico.

Tepic is one of the best places to encounter the living indigenous cultures of the Sierra Madre. Wixárika, also known as Huichol, and Cora people come to the city to trade, and their intricate beadwork and yarn paintings, filled with deer, peyote and solar imagery, are sold in shops and markets around the centre. Regional festivals, mariachi music and a strong tradition of street food give the city a lively, unhurried atmosphere.

Highways connect Tepic to Guadalajara, Mazatlán and the resort towns of Riviera Nayarit and Puerto Vallarta, and a small airport and long-distance bus terminal handle most travel. Within the city, buses and taxis are the usual means of getting around. The Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit is the main centre of higher education, complemented by a technological institute and several private universities that draw students from across the state.

Tepic is valued as a comfortable, welcoming capital that combines colonial architecture, indigenous art and mountain scenery, and as the natural gateway to the volcanoes, crater lakes and Pacific beaches that surround it.