Cuernavaca

The city is located south of Mexico City, reachable via a 90-minute drive along

the Federal Highway 95D.

The name Cuernavaca is a euphonism derived from the Nahuatl toponym Cuauhnāhuac and means 'surrounded by or close to trees'. The name was Hispanicized to Cuernavaca; Hernán Cortés called it Coadnabaced in his letters to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Bernal Díaz del Castillo used the name Cuautlavaca in his chronicles. The coat-of-arms of the municipality is based on the pre-Columbian pictograph emblem of the city that depicts a tree trunk (cuahuitl) with three branches, with foliage, and four roots colored red. There is a cut in the trunk in the form of a mouth, from which emerges a speech scroll, probably representing the language Nahuatl and by extension the locative suffix -nāhuac, meaning 'near'.

Cuernavaca has long been a favorite escape for Mexico City residents and foreign visitors because of its warm, stable climate and abundant vegetation.