Ecatepec de Morelos

Cable cars, Morelos's last house and the Sacred Heart cathedral

One well-planned daylight day shows the best of Ecatepec. Start early on the Mexicable, the aerial cable car climbing from the valley floor into the colonias on the slopes of the Sierra de Guadalupe, where rooftops and walls below carry large murals painted to brighten the neighbourhoods, then visit the house where Morelos spent his last days.

Late morning. Head to the Casa de Morelos on the old Mexico to Pachuca road. In this 1747 building, once a stop for viceroys travelling north, Morelos spent his final hours before his execution in 1815. Its small galleries cover his life and, the crowd favourite, the fossil remains of a mammoth found locally. Check opening days before you go.

Afternoon. Continue to the Catedral del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús behind the old parish church on the main square of San Cristóbal, a church consecrated in 1999 with sweeping arches with huge stained-glass windows and sculptures behind the altar. Then, if you have energy, take a taxi to the Parque Ecológico Ehécatl, a large green space near the Cerro del Viento with a small zoo, picnic areas and an open-air theatre that children enjoy.

Evening. Ride Line B back toward Mexico City, or stop in Valle de Aragón near Múzquiz station for an early dinner before the rush hour builds.

Barbacoa and breakfast plates around Múzquiz station

Ecatepec's food is the northern Valley of Mexico's: plentiful, cheap and best at weekends. The neighbourhood to know is Valle de Aragón, around Múzquiz station on Metro Line B, where family restaurants line quiet avenues and weekend barbacoa, pit-cooked lamb in maguey leaves, is sold by weight with tortillas and consomé.

Barbacoa is the weekend ritual. Lamb is wrapped in maguey leaves and cooked slowly in an underground pit overnight, then sold by weight with tortillas, salsa, chopped onion and coriander. The cooking juices become the consomé, a rich soup with chickpeas and rice served first. La Cabaña, on Valle Perdido, is a local favourite with queues on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Arrive early; the best barbacoa sells out by early afternoon.

Breakfast is the other big meal. Hacienda Xanthe, on Avenida Valle del Don, serves generous plates of chilaquiles (fried tortilla pieces in red or green salsa with cream and cheese), eggs cooked many ways and regional dishes in a bright, cheerful dining room. For meat, El Mejor Bife on the same street grid grills Argentine-style steaks.

Elsewhere in the city, street stalls and weekly tianguis markets sell tacos de suadero, gorditas and quesadillas made to order on a hot comal. Carry small change, and eat where locals are queuing.

Acolman's convent, the Tepexpan skeleton and the Teotihuacan pyramids

Ecatepec sits on the road from Mexico City to Teotihuacan, so one day trip north-east can combine its neighbours. Start at the Museo del Hombre de Tepexpan, just beyond the boundary, continue to the 16th-century Augustinian convent at Acolman, and finish at the Teotihuacan pyramids.

First stop is the Museo del Hombre de Tepexpan, just beyond the municipal boundary on the old highway. It tells the story of a skeleton found in the dried bed of Lake Texcoco in 1947. At first it was thought to be around 10,000 years old because it lay near mammoth bones; uranium-series dating later put it at about 4,700 years. The museum is small and academic, but it explains how people lived on the old lakeshore.

A few kilometres on, the former convent of San Agustín Acolman is one of the finest 16th-century monasteries in the Valley of Mexico, with a carved Plateresque doorway and faded murals in the cloister. It is worth half an hour.

Then continue to Teotihuacan, about 45 minutes from Ecatepec in total. Climb the Pyramid of the Sun, walk the Avenue of the Dead to the Pyramid of the Moon, and see the murals in the palace complexes. Go early; by noon the sun is hard and the site is busy.

Back toward the capital, the Basilica of Guadalupe, Mexico's most visited shrine, is just south of Ecatepec beyond Indios Verdes. And for nature, the Sierra de Guadalupe state park on the city's western edge has hiking trails and rock-climbing cliffs, best walked early in the day.