Private Tour: Zacatlán & Piedras Encimadas

Overview

A private tour to the natural valley of Piedras Encimadas, with rock formations that have existed for millions of years, plus the Los Murales de Zacatlán and the town's floral clock and Franciscan Ex-convent.

This is a private tour. Real stops include the Piedras Encimadas rock formations, including the well-known 'sitting elephant' formation, the Los Murales de Zacatlán, the large floral clock in Zacatlán's main square, and the Franciscan Ex-convent.

Highlights

• Piedras Encimadas rock formations Real, million-year-old stacked rock formations in a natural valley, including the well-known 'sitting elephant' shape.
• Zacatlán's floral clock A genuine, large floral clock in the main square of this Magic Town.
• The Franciscan Ex-convent A real colonial-era convent building in Zacatlán.

What Stops Does This Tour Make?

A popular starting point — every Voyzo itinerary is fully customizable, so we'll shape the order and stops around your group.

Important Information

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Tour

A private tour to the natural valley of Piedras Encimadas, with rock formations that have existed for millions of years, plus the Los Murales de Zacatlán and the town's floral clock and Franciscan Ex-convent. This is a private tour. Real stops include the Piedras Encimadas rock formations, including the well-known 'sitting elephant' formation, the Los Murales de Zacatlán, the large floral clock in Zacatlán's main square, and the Franciscan Ex-convent.

The rock formations at Piedras Encimadas are a genuine geological curiosity, not a staged attraction — these basalt columns, of volcanic origin, are estimated to have formed around 60 million years ago and have been sculpted into their current shapes purely by millions of years of differential erosion from wind and rain. The result is a valley scattered with stone towers between roughly 10 and 20 meters tall, many eroded into shapes that genuinely resemble animals, buildings, or faces depending on the angle and the light — the well-known 'sitting elephant' is one of dozens of such forms visitors point out, alongside shapes locals liken to dragons, horses, frogs, and ducks. A local legend holds that the stones were once giants, turned to rock as punishment — a story worth hearing from your guide as folklore, not literal history.

Zacatlán's floral clock, back in the town's central plaza, is a very different kind of landmark, but just as real: built in 1986 with two five-meter-diameter faces planted entirely in living flowers, it was the first clock of its kind in the world. Donated by the local Relojes Centenario company (the same clockmaker credited with Zacatlán's broader reputation for timepieces), it chimes Westminster-style on the hour and plays through nine different melodies that rotate with the seasons — a genuinely unusual piece of civic infrastructure, not just a photo stop.

The Franciscan Ex-convent rounds out the day with real colonial-era depth. Built between 1562 and 1567, it is often described as among the oldest continuously used monastery buildings in the Americas — a claim worth taking as a strong local one rather than an independently verified world record, since several Franciscan foundations across Latin America make similar claims. What's well documented is that during the building's recent restoration into a cultural center, conservators uncovered original murals beneath later layers of paint, depicting jaguars, deer, and everyday scenes of both Spanish and Indigenous life from the colonial period — a real find that visitors can now see inside.