Coahuila

Coahuila is the largest state in northeastern Mexico and one of the most surprising for those who discover it without preconceived expectations. Its capital, Saltillo, is a city with one of the most important contemporary art collections in the northern part of the country and a historic center with the most elaborate baroque cathedral in the northeast. The mountain climate at 1,600 meters makes it a fresh respite amid the northern aridity.

The Dunas de Bilbao, near Cuatro Ciénegas, are one of the most unreal landscapes in Mexico: white gypsum sand dunes surrounded by pools of crystalline blue water in the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert. The Pozas de Cuatro Ciénegas, a unique system in the world of stromatolites—microorganisms that are the same ones that 3.5 billion years ago produced the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere—constitute a site of planetary scientific importance.

Parras de la Fuente is the oldest wine-producing municipality in America: Casa Madero, founded in 1597, is the oldest winery in the American continent in continuous production, and today produces internationally recognized wines. The Sierra de Arteaga offers one of the most dramatic and accessible mountain landscapes in the northeast, with pine and apple forests just a few hours from Monterrey.

Torreón, in the Comarca Lagunera shared with Durango, is an industrial city with a contemporary art museum that rivals the best in the northern part of the country, and the gateway to the deserts and dunes of southern Coahuila.