During the meal Bogin explains the huge variety of ways to make mole using ingredients from chilli to chocolate, and how it is the pride of every Mexican housewife. Three brass bands compete to serenade people as they walk up the path to pay their respects and return carrying gladioli, some wearing a bendy crown of thorns. Outside the churchyard, stalls, games and funfair rides line the cobbled street, and behind garden walls families host an endless round of visitors and ladle out mole, a thick brown sauce that is an ancient part of the Mexican diet. In the afternoon, I stumble on a small farmyard rodeo show where men are thrown from one bull after another, the audience whistling from the surrounding rooftops.

Once the fiesta of the Church of Ixcatepec kicks off at the bottom of the hill, I feel only a gastronomic extravaganza of epic proportions can tear me away. The small church has been decorated like a cake with tinsel and ribbons. And, since even the briefest visit to Tepoztlan is likely to be crowned by a fiesta, I await the barrage of firecrackers that will signal the start of some new celebration. Its acoustics are exquisite, although they seem designed to highlight the few moments when the choir is out of tune. Short breaks between classes are filled dropping into cool, candle-lit churches, museums and craft markets.

Malcolm Lowry wrote Under the Volcano here.”While those who sign up for Cocinar Mexicano usually have a keen interest in learning how to thicken sauces, Bogin knows that the place itself is a huge part of the attraction and makes sure there is time to explore. Today it’s heart-warming to visit Tepoztlan knowing this story; to see the busy restaurants and watch Tepoztecans reaping the benefits of tourism on their own terms. The hard-won visitors of today come because they cherish the town as a cultural hotspot, an authentic place. Weekenders from Mexico City swarm here to sample the fresh tortilla.

Spanish schools are proliferating, and now Bogin is running not only cookery courses but seminars on creative writing, too.An increasing number of artists, architects, photographers and composers (most Mexican, but some Argentinian, Spanish and Italian) now claim Tepoztlan as a rural retreat, and own vast houses with luscious walled gardens on its outskirts. It doesn’t take long to get sucked into the creative heart of the town – I enjoy two concerts, including a choral performance in the old monastery. One afternoon, after cooking and eating cilantro soup, squash and chicken roulade and guava mousse, I work off lunch with a walk to the Aztec pyramid. This place has a strong sense of tradition and community and we didn’t want this threatened.”Thanks to damaging government propaganda, it was five years before tourists started to return. As Bogin points out: “This has always been a haven for writers and artists. “And it’s not as easy as it looks.”Some of the tortilla we make that lunchtime are eaten by Bogin’s dog, after being dropped on her kitchen floor as they are peeled off the press Others fold over in an unseemly pile on the gas.