Accommodations

The First European-Mexican IT Workshop offers an accommodation service for participants from April 8th to 11th, 2008. Selected hotels are about 10 minutes away from event location. For receiving confirmation of your hotel reservation, please send your travelling plans and contact Mara Contreras (mara@lania.mx).

Posada Coatepec
Hidalgo No. 9 Col. Centro
Coatepec, Veracruz, México C.P. 91500

Posada del Cafeto
Canovas No. 8 y 12 Col. Centro
Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico C.P. 91000

Posada María de San Francisco
Clavijero 17 Centro Histórico Zona Centro
Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico C.P. 91000

About Xalapa, Veracruz

Xalapa is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz. The municipality has an area of 118.45 km². Xalapa lies near the geographic center of the state and is the second-largest city in the state after the city of Veracruz. The municipal seat of Xalapa is the city of Xalapa de Enríquez, named in honor of 19th-century Governor Juan de la Luz Enríquez. It was called the City of Flowers by Alexander Von Humboldt. Its name comes from the Nahuatl roots "Xalli" (sand) and "Apan" (water place), which approximately means "spring in the sand."

The Totonacas were the first people who established themselves around the "Macuiltepetl" - a 'five-peaked' hill, which today is a park. During the 14th century, four cultures settled in the territory today known as Xalapa. Each of them built a small village: Xalitic (in the sand) was founded by the Totonacas; Techacapan (river of waste) was founded by the Chichimecas; in the northeast Tecuanapan (river of the beasts) was founded by the Toltecas and Tlalnecapan was founded by the Teochichimecas. Moctezuma Ilhuicamina, fifth Aztec Emperor, invaded the territory during the second half of the 15th century; therefore all the land became part of the Aztec Empire until the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores.

Eventually around 1313, the four villages grew and joined forming one big village which was given the name Xallapan. In 1519 Hernán Cortés passed through Xalapa enroute to Tenochtitlan. 1555 saw the final construction of the Franciscan convent which is the second most important event in that time in Nueva España. In 1772 the construction of the Xalapa Cathedral began. Xalapa also has the widest collection of Diego Rivera's paintings in all Mexico, at a gallery called Pinacoteca Diego Rivera, nearby City Hall and Parque Juárez in the downtown area.

more about Xalapa...
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