Huesos and I are back from a few days riding and rambling around the Sierra Norte’s Pueblos Mancomunados, an alliance of eight villages with a community-run, eco-touristic infrastructure, offering an insight into Zapotec mountain life.
And the extra exciting news? The high country settlement of Benito Juárez, one of those eight villages, is finally open! Having visited it briefly in February 2020, I’ve waited both patiently and impatiently over the last couple of years for it to welcome visitors back into its cloudy folds, after it closed down to the outside world at the very beginning of the pandemic.
In fact, when fellow bikepacker Daniel and his wife Jen, a travel writer, confirmed that yes, it was indeed open and not only that, but they were headed up there for the weekend to hike with a friend, I’d pretty much immediately mentally packed my bags to get up there too.
Loading up on important bakery products before we set off. I refuelled on a round of memelas before the climb, along with some bruised but sweet chico zapotes.
As for biking to Benito Juárez, first it’s an easy cruise across the valley to Teotitlán del Valle, via tongue-twisting Tlacachuyuaya. Then it’s up, up, up. The unpaved climb is relatively familiar. I’ve ridden it a number of times over the years, even if we’ve had to stop at the guarded gate just shy of the village itself. Initially I was eager to gain some elevation to escape the valley heat and dive into the treeline for some shade. But this enthusiasm soon wained when dark skies became darker still, until they were so inky black that I knew our destiny was written in rain. Sure enough, it wasn’t long before we were soaked to the bone, pedalling and trotting alonsgside each other, Huesos casting me the odd glance that might have said honestly, I’m not loving this. Towards the top, a family invited to hunker down in their home on the fringes of town until the storm had passed – I sipped on Coca-Cola and skinny Huesos eyed their brawny dog mountain suspiciously but was cold to cause a stir. Then we pedalled on at dusk rounding off the day with one final climb to the community-run centro ecoturistico to pitch the tent and dry off as best we could.
Later that evening, Daniel, Jen and their friend Raquel turned up in a bright yellow moto-taxi, which had somehow put-putted its way up the 1000m climb from Teotitlán. We all found our way down at Señor Eli and Family’s come nightfall where the chance of homestay-style food had been mentioned, as long as we could find it – tucked as it was down a slippery trail lost amongst swirls of mist and magueys. Thankfully, a cup hot chocolate and a plate of blue corn memelas really hit the spot (along with a big serving of eggs for the boy), as did the fire in Daniel & Co’s cosy cabaña, where I toasted Huesos’ Mickey Mouse fleece dry before we retired to our tent.
The Road to Benito Juarez is paved with moss, magueys, and bromeliads.
Thankfully the sun was out the next day, so set out for a morning hike-scramble-run, looping out to Benito Juarez’s lofty mirador – a rickety fire lookout tower accessed by a submarine-like cylinder of stairs – before entrusting ourselves to crossing a wire bridge that spanned two rocky outcrops (one for Sage to experience next month, for sure!) Then we returned to Señor Eli and Family for entomatados and more conversation, before Huesos and I took the dirt road to Cuajimaloyas, whilst the others hiked there.
Keen to make the most of my trail shoes that I’d squeezed into my framebag, the next morning Daniel and I enjoyed another run, finishing up with a stint on Cuajimaloyas’ ‘step machine’ – aka the natural staircase that leads to its mirador, which marks the area’s highest spot – 3250m – where another zipline offered a speedy way back down to town. Remarkably, this tirasol is a kilometre long! Another one for Sage and I to try… maybe…
Señor Eli and family cooked us up some delicious dinner and breakfast, made with their own corn. The atole chaser was red in colour and a little chocolotey in taste.
Hotchpotch Cuajimaloyas is spread across a ridge and often buffeted by the elements. I love its weathered character, though when the sun’s out, the hillsides are so perfect they seem manicured – think wildflowers, giant maguays, and succulents to name a few. In fact, succulents really thrive up here, thanks to all the ambient moisture. If you’re a botanist, “it’s like being a kid in a candy store”, as Emma said.
Our campspot for the night, and Huesos in a pensive mood.
Huesos kindly shared his trailer with my running shoes. First time I’ve ran trails on a bike trip for a while… and it was super fun! Sadly, no pictures to prove it, but you can find the RWGPS maps below. FYI, love these zero drop Ultra Loan Peak 2.5s.
At around 3100m in elevation, we were treated to a cloud inversion in the morning, a thick duvet that looked even more comfy than my air mattress.
Huesos and I tried a short cut on the way. A quiet and photogenic dirt road descended 300m in elevation to peter out in a trail, which by all accounts, would be too much of a handful with my setup. Nothing lost, nothing gained!
Had we angered the weather gods? A storm chased us all of the way out of the mountains, though this time, at least Huesos had his sunshade to defend himself from the driving rain. Luckily it was scorching hot in the valley, so we soon crinkled dry. As an aside, I decided not to try and capture the experience, as replacing cameras is getting too expensive. My Fuji X100V recently died, in part from my all-weather reportages )-:
Snacktime in Teotitlan del Valle, then back on the dirt roads homewards.
Thanks are always due to the Farfarer Trailer. Not sure what we’d do without it! This time, I latched it to the Jones LWB HD/e, in non ‘e’ mode. Gear-wise, an OMM Divide rack, two 10L Tailfin Mini Panniers, my old Porcelain Rocket framebag, and an early BXB Goldback completed the setup.
That dastardly storm was huffing and puffing, so we dawdled on the bike path to make sure we didn’t get soaked for the 3rd time…
Who’s the Huesos? You’re the Huesos!
I recently posted a route to bikepacking.com – Vuelta a los Pueblos Mancomunados – so I’m excited to update it, now that Benito Juarez is open and we can use the dirt road descent back to the valley floor. Speaking of which, when we did drop down the next day to Teotitlan, it seems we’d done something to anger the weather gods, as we were chased by rain and ominous skies all the way out of the mountains, until sunshine eventually baked us try once more.
Sorry Huesos for putting you through the weather wringer on this trip!
The Trail Running
The Route
Some other stats
It’s about 4 hours riding time from Oaxaca to Benito Juarez, at least for me, on a loaded bike with Huesos. Then, it’s just an hour or so to Cuajimaloyas, all the way down to the campsite.
On the way back, I took a detour which didn’t quite work out, so it took me 4 hours back to Oaxaca from Cuajimaloyas, via Benito Juarez. I’d also have ridden a different route from Teotitlan del Valle, but scary storms cancelled play.
