Up at 7am. Made a sandwich while eating breakfast. I packed a rain jacket and hiking boots. Umbrella too. 55% chance of rain today. I went to Adelas bus asked for a ticket for the 8am bus. Turns out I took a photo of the wrong schedule. The bus is at 8:15. There are buses every 45 minutes.
Zongolica rapid bus is 50 peso.
My bus left on time. Only 9 on board. It picked up and dropped off passengers along the way. Never even half full. Some riders don't wear face masks. 1.5 hrs fairly scenic but winding roads. I got a bit dizzy. Happy to be back on solid ground.
Went to the city tourism office at the main square inquiring how to get to the Cascada Atlahuitzia and Surgencia de Huixtla. They don't have anything. After a few people's help, I found the terminal. There are multiple such terminals here going different directions. These are called mixto rural. I was told to come back at noon, and the following one is at 2pm. Return truck at 2 and 4pm.
Wandered around the small town. Very hazy. Tried to walk up to Macuilxochitl, but the trailhead is locked. Not sure why. Everyone I asked wasn't aware of the closure. Then I walked up the road to this church (circled in the above photo). Hot. Good but hazy view of the surrounding mountains.
Much better. Lots of coffee beans.
On the way back, saw this passage: Paso del Aguila. 
Smelled sour. Maybe already fermented. Once awhile, saw a worker carrying a bag of beans up. At the lowest turn, it's a fork. I took the right fork and came out at the corner of calle Moctezuma and Priv. José Azueta. No sign of any sort.
Ate my sandwich at the main plaza (not a lot of shade). Walked to the mixto terminal before noon. The girl told me that I had to take the 2pm truck. The truck at noon was spoken for. Oh well. I took time to fill up my blog. The clouds moved in, overcast the rest of the day. The 2pm truck arrived at 1:30. The girl told me that's my truck. The driver was concerned where I wanted to go, because he is turning back right away. So I wouldn't have time to visit. I assured him that I just want to take a picture. He said ok.
It's a ~2hr rough road to Cascada Atlahuizia. Maybe 5% is paved, or used to be paved. Even if you drive without stop, may still need 1.5 hrs. 14 miles. 45 peso.
There were 4 women squeezed in the back seat, and I was in the middle. On the way out, I sat next to the driver, so I could take pictures out of the window. We curved around, over steep hills. Pretty countryside. Deep valleys with houses perched on concrete walls. The waterfall is very pretty, big and graceful. I asked for 5 minutes. The problem is that the driver stopped right in front of the water, there's a small parking lot there, but I wasn't able to get the full view. Thankfully, he stopped for a minute on our way out and allowed me to take a photo afar without the shaking by the road. 
I'm surprised to see 4 people waited at the waterfall to catch the truck out. The last town before the waterfall, Mangotitla, was having some event. The main road was choked with people. Later, we also passed a small funeral procession.
Back at the mixto terminal at 5:50. According to the schedule, I just missed the 5:45 bus. Went to the Adelas terminal, it turned out there's a 6:15 rapid bus. I don't know the difference between the rapido and the ordinary. I used the toilet at the station. The lock doesn't work. My rapid bus picked up people along the way. This bus left the terminal at 6:13 with maybe 5 on board. But quickly filled up. Only half of the passengers when we pulled into Orizaba. I dozed off. This one took longer than 1.5 hrs. I got off before the terminal.
Back at my Airbnb at 8pm. Cooked all my food. Had a large but late dinner. Put the leftover in my vaccume bottle. Requested a checkout at 8:30am tomorrow, so I could catch a 9am bus (AU 2nd class bus runs every half an hr) to Tehuacan, leaving the state of Veracruz.
