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The Guardian
28-04-2025
- The Guardian
Viva Zapotec! A thriving ecotourism project in Mexico's Oaxaca state
When I reach the mountaintop chapel, I slump on the dry stone wall, wheezing in the thin air, marvelling at what combination of brawn and piety must have been needed to build such a thing at such a height. It might not be a Sunday, but I can tell that mass at 3,000 metres must be magnificent. Open walls reach out to the rolling slopes of the Sierra Norte, 35 miles east of Oaxaca City in southern Mexico, with virgin pine in every direction. Somewhere unseen, a brown-backed solitaire bird lifts a lonely song over the valley. Then comes the bark of warring crows and, most exciting of all, the quick peeps of a hummingbird, believed here to ferry messages between the living and dead. At this height, even to a heathen like me, the urge to pay tribute is understandable. My guide, Eric, who must have a third lung, judging by his ability to tell stories on the climb, becomes quiet and crosses himself before the altar. I'm a little surprised at this show of devotion. Down in the small town of Tlacolula de Matamoros, he had shown us a site the Indigenous Zapotecs used to praise the sacred mountain above – before the Spanish came and plonked a church on the same spot. The colonialists' intention, Eric explained, was erasure. But when conversion comes at the point of a sword, some resistance seems inevitable. Here, Indigenous signs hide in Catholic icons. Dark stones in holy corners hold animist engravings. Duality is everywhere. Praise whispered in the name of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the mother of Christ to Mexican Catholics, is also meant for Huitzilopochtli, the old sun god. We climb to spectacular viewpoints, call out to jaguars, and watch wild horses gallop on wide green plains Eric gathers pine needles in a small clay cup and lights them on the altar together with chunks of amber resin, which glow as they catch. Then, as gifts for mother earth, he leaves an apple and a banana at the entrance. Finally, he goes back to the cup, and watches in silence as the smoke carries his wishes to the heavens. The mountain is just north of Llano Grande, one of the self-ruling villages in these mountains that form the Pueblos Mancomunados (united villages). Each holds a few hundred people living in log cabins, tending black roses, making tortillas on wood fires. It's a million miles from the shining streets and buzzing mezcal bars of Oaxaca City. Up here, when the sun drops, the air freezes; when I'm woken by the cock crow in the morning, I see the ground glazed with frost. Life in the clouds requires discipline. Lowlander decadence will not pull squash, beans and corn of all colours from the hard ground. The people abide by an iron rule: adults must commit one year in every three to community work. For some, that means policing. For others, it means forestry. And since the mid-1990s, it has also meant participating in their tourism project. View image in fullscreen A tourist with a guide in the Sierra Norte. Photograph: Chico Sanchez/Alamy Eric's company, Zapotrek, is one of a handful of trusted operators based in Oaxaca City that have developed partnerships with the mountain people. Booking secures permission to access the community, represented by a local chaperone for the duration of the trip. Ours, smiling Florencio, comes with three dogs, a laser eye for flora and a hunger for wasp larvae. He seems in no rush to complete his year of community service. Following his easy pace, we spend two days padding along gorgeous forest paths, soft as royal linen. We climb to spectacular viewpoints, call out in vain to jaguars, and watch wild horses gallop on wide green plains. The project seems a good deal. A gentle flow of visitors get sylvan splendour, while the hosts receive reliable revenue. That money is divided equally and has bought bigger, better cabins with hot water. But more importantly, it has allowed more people to stay in the communities they were born to. Economic gravity still drags young people to the cities, or across the border to the north. But now, if someone wants to stay here, they have more reason to. And despite the old distortions – the colonial invasions, repression of religion, prejudice against the Zapotec language – and more recent globalism, an ancient way of life adapts and carries on. Wishes made on mountaintops may come true. View image in fullscreen Tourists hike on a trail between La Neveria and Latuvi. Photograph: Jim West/Alamy This really matters. If you spend time in Mexico City, in the coffee shops of Roma Norte or La Condesa, you see familiar people. People with the same trainers, the same laptops, the same look of inbox worry. People who would make sense anywhere. The people of the Pueblos Mancomunados, however, are hard to picture anywhere but here. Their lives are green lives, bound with this land. It's as if Florencio could stop in his tracks, take root, sprout a great shimmering crown. Care for woods properly, as they do here, and to walk in them is to enter a pharmacy, a pantry, a gallery They tend to the forest; the forest tends them back. Eric explains there's a plant for everything. Poleo mint for fresh breath. Pine resin for splints. Corn silk tea for urinary tract infections. Corn husks to mould tamales. Bitter willow leaves for headaches. When food is scarce, they grind fresh agave hearts into flour. When water is needed, they look where the birch and ferns grow, and dig down. The undergrowth is a glittering mosaic. Pine and peeling madrones (evergreens) shine with silver mosses, bromeliads, bearded lichens. Bursts of Indian paintbrush plants glow red in the evening sun. Care for woods properly, as they do here, and to walk in them is to enter a pharmacy, a pantry, a gallery. View image in fullscreen James Gingell enjoys the local hospitality. Photograph: James Gingell When I come down from the mountains my eyes are wider. A few buses and a boat ride later, I'm on an empty jetty facing the lagoon of Chacahua. All the surfers and hippies are elsewhere; all the fishermen are hard at work. As the tide goes out, a sandbar appears 10 metres away; I wade to it with the low amber sun marbling in the cool water. Where the pool deepens, a flock of gulls gather and discuss their day in paradise. From the mangrove fringes, demon eyes leer out and a night heron appears with a meal in its mouth. Three pelicans wheel in from the sea, perform a survey loop, then divebomb so close I can see the fish squirm down their gullets. Finally the huge platinum moon arrives, the shallow boats chug back with the swordfish for dinner, and the birds stop bickering. Everything is silent in silhouette. I walk back home along the beach. The waves hush the village to sleep, each crest twinkling with bioluminescence. I look down to the sand and see footsteps, stretching forward to the huts with their palm roofs. The human prints wind together with those of other animals, the talons of kiskadees, maybe, or yellow kingbirds, and the tiny bores made by skittering crabs. Everything weaves on and on down the shore until disappearing into darkness. Zapotrek offers cycling and hiking trips from one day up to a week. A guided two-day hike for two, including taxi collection and return to Oaxaca City (two hours each way), all meals and a night in a cabin is £240pp
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
6 of Mexico's best festivals
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Day of the Dead may be Mexico's most famous festival, but it's just one of 5,000 that take place in the country each year. These celebrations blend the culture of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica with rituals brought by their Catholic colonisers: some are devoted to God, others to the devil; some celebrate life, others death. Processions form to mark everything from saints to particular professions, and no event is too small — even a girl's quinceañera, or 15th birthday party, might turn a town on its head. Here's our pick of the festivals worth travelling for. For weeks leading up to Day of the Dead, traditionally celebrated on 1 and 2 November, the walls of Oaxaca are flushed bright orange with freshly cut marigolds — fixed to doors, hung in garlands or, in some cases, cloaking entire buildings. According to legend, the flowers act as guides to souls revisiting the land of the living, where they're greeted by raucous street parties, decorated ofrenda (altars), painted faces and skeletal puppet parades. Join in by adding a picture of a lost loved one to a communal ofrenda and, typically, a sweet treat or drink they can enjoy on their journey home. Half an hour south of the state capital, you'll find the candlelit cemeteries of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán — one of several surrounding settlements that hosts its own festivities. Celebrations of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint — as she appeared to Juan Diego, the first Indigenous person of the Americas to be canonised — begin on 12 December. Across the country, crowds carry flower-wrapped representations of the Holy Virgin and worshippers don colourful headdresses to perform the Dance of the Matachines in her honour, with live music and fireworks to follow. Morelia, the capital of the central state of Michoacán, has the most fervent festivities — each year, around 150,000 pilgrims take part in a procession towards the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, its interior gleaming with gold. Guelaguetza (meaning 'offering') is a 3,000-year-old festival that traditionally honoured the Zapotec goddess of agriculture but now serves as a celebration of the state's dazzlingly diverse Indigenous culture. Oaxaca's 16 Indigenous groups are represented, with dancers, musicians and costumed carousers from each group travelling to the state capital for the last two Mondays of July. Their processions mainly take place in an open-air amphitheatre built into the Cerro del Fortín hilltop, for which tickets are required — but the festive spirit tends to spill over into city streets. This annual festival, held in January, is inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List and is the chief claim to fame of this Chiapas highlands town. Honouring three Catholic saints (Saint Anthony Abbot, Our Lord of Esquipulas and Saint Sebastian), it sees parachico dancers wearing painted masks spinning amid crowds donned in folkloric costumes. Participants wear designs specific to their place of origin, with men parading in neon-woven serapes (traditional shawls) and women in meticulously embroidered pluming skirts. Soundtracked by beating drums and children's chattering maracas, the procession makes its way towards the grand doors of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de Guzmán for a dedicated mass. This Pacific Coast city's multi-day Carnaval celebrations, held in the lead-up to Lent, has the same roots as its famous counterparts in Brazil and the Caribbean — but today, Mazatlán's iteration is mostly an excuse for a city-wide party. Neon lights shine from the sides of grand parade floats and dancers wearing bedazzled bikinis and feathered headdresses twirl to pounding tunes late into the night. The daytime procession tends to be calmer and more family-friendly, with fairground rides and the coronation of the Carnaval King and Queen. Among the few festivals tagged neither to pre-Hispanic ritual nor the Catholic calendar, this celebration of Spanish-language arts takes place in the central Mexican city of Guanajuato each autumn. Named after the Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, its packed programme of live events includes performances of traditional Mexican folkloric ballet in the central hub Plaza de la Paz, music in repurposed baroque churches and pop-up nightclubs in subterranean catacombs. To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here. (Available in select countries only).
National Geographic
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- National Geographic
6 of Mexico's best festivals
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Day of the Dead may be Mexico's most famous festival, but it's just one of 5,000 that take place in the country each year. These celebrations blend the culture of pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica with rituals brought by their Catholic colonisers: some are devoted to God, others to the devil; some celebrate life, others death. Processions form to mark everything from saints to particular professions, and no event is too small — even a girl's quinceañera, or 15th birthday party, might turn a town on its head. Here's our pick of the festivals worth travelling for. 1. Día de los Muertos, Oaxaca de Juárez For weeks leading up to Day of the Dead, traditionally celebrated on 1 and 2 November, the walls of Oaxaca are flushed bright orange with freshly cut marigolds — fixed to doors, hung in garlands or, in some cases, cloaking entire buildings. According to legend, the flowers act as guides to souls revisiting the land of the living, where they're greeted by raucous street parties, decorated ofrenda (altars), painted faces and skeletal puppet parades. Join in by adding a picture of a lost loved one to a communal ofrenda and, typically, a sweet treat or drink they can enjoy on their journey home. Half an hour south of the state capital, you'll find the candlelit cemeteries of Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán — one of several surrounding settlements that hosts its own festivities. 2. Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe, Morelia Celebrations of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint — as she appeared to Juan Diego, the first Indigenous person of the Americas to be canonised — begin on 12 December. Across the country, crowds carry flower-wrapped representations of the Holy Virgin and worshippers don colourful headdresses to perform the Dance of the Matachines in her honour, with live music and fireworks to follow. Morelia, the capital of the central state of Michoacán, has the most fervent festivities — each year, around 150,000 pilgrims take part in a procession towards the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, its interior gleaming with gold. The Guelaguetza celebrations in Oaxaca include offerings to the Zapotec goddess of agriculture. Photograph by Gabriel Perez, Getty Images 3. Guelaguetza, Oaxaca de Juárez Guelaguetza (meaning 'offering') is a 3,000-year-old festival that traditionally honoured the Zapotec goddess of agriculture but now serves as a celebration of the state's dazzlingly diverse Indigenous culture. Oaxaca's 16 Indigenous groups are represented, with dancers, musicians and costumed carousers from each group travelling to the state capital for the last two Mondays of July. Their processions mainly take place in an open-air amphitheatre built into the Cerro del Fortín hilltop, for which tickets are required — but the festive spirit tends to spill over into city streets. 4. Fiesta Grande de Chiapa, Chiapa de Corzo This annual festival, held in January, is inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List and is the chief claim to fame of this Chiapas highlands town. Honouring three Catholic saints (Saint Anthony Abbot, Our Lord of Esquipulas and Saint Sebastian), it sees parachico dancers wearing painted masks spinning amid crowds donned in folkloric costumes. Participants wear designs specific to their place of origin, with men parading in neon-woven serapes (traditional shawls) and women in meticulously embroidered pluming skirts. Soundtracked by beating drums and children's chattering maracas, the procession makes its way towards the grand doors of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo de Guzmán for a dedicated mass. Lighting a candle in honour of the Catholic Saints is a fundamental activity during festivities. Photograph by Gabriel Perez, Getty Images 5. Carnaval, Mazatlán This Pacific Coast city's multi-day Carnaval celebrations, held in the lead-up to Lent, has the same roots as its famous counterparts in Brazil and the Caribbean — but today, Mazatlán's iteration is mostly an excuse for a city-wide party. Neon lights shine from the sides of grand parade floats and dancers wearing bedazzled bikinis and feathered headdresses twirl to pounding tunes late into the night. The daytime procession tends to be calmer and more family-friendly, with fairground rides and the coronation of the Carnaval King and Queen. 6. Festival Internacional Cervantino, Guanajuato Among the few festivals tagged neither to pre-Hispanic ritual nor the Catholic calendar, this celebration of Spanish-language arts takes place in the central Mexican city of Guanajuato each autumn. Named after the Spaniard Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, its packed programme of live events includes performances of traditional Mexican folkloric ballet in the central hub Plaza de la Paz, music in repurposed baroque churches and pop-up nightclubs in subterranean catacombs. National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click To subscribe to(UK) magazine click here . (Available in select countries only).
