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Most tourists flock to Oaxaca
City to bask in the ongoing cultural parade of painters,
musicians and weavers. But the state's tapestry includes a vast
wealth of biodiverse treasures that I sampled in December 2005.
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| Trekking in the Zapotec-owned pine-oak reserve
above Ixtlán
de Juárez, paddling through the mangrove tunnels
at Chacahua
Lagoons National Park were among the stops on my Oaxacan
eco travels.
Oaxacan ecotourism is in its infancy, and it's not right for
everybody. The guides in the five areas I visited ranged from
fair to poor. I had guides throwing rocks at birds and discarding
soda cans on the trail. I braved unsafe boats whose navigators
went out without food and water much less life preservers. On
a snorkel trip I was encouraged to plunge into jellyfish invested
waters. I have the bites to prove it. None of my guides spoke
English, none were trained to interpret flora and fauna, but
they are in position to show travelers a variety of birds and
plants.
If you want comfortable lodges and expert bilingual guides
go to Costa
Rica. If you're ready to rough it in a night sand floor
palapas replete with voracious no- see-ums or frosty mountain
cabanas, Oaxaca can be a four-star nature experience.
Tip - Bring your own guidebooks to help identify what you see.
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I started in Oaxaca
City gleaning as much information at the state's tourist office
on Avenida Murgia where I made reservations to stay at Shiaa-Rua-Via,
Ixtlán's ecotourism council's cabanas.
Another less formal source of ecotourism information is available
at the weekly (Fridays/Saturdays) Pochote
market. Shade grown coffee vendors share stalls with vegetable
growers and share information about the mountains surrounding
Oaxaca where they grow and live.
Some discoveries I made on my own. Although I missed November's
Day of the Dead celebration, I found the city's avian residents
living among the dead in the Pantheon, Oaxaca's ornate cemetery.
Within its 150 year-old walls, the Pantheon contains the city's
densest collection of native trees and shrubs. I saw many gray
silky flycatchers, a Mexican endemic burying insects in their
vise-like bills and hummingbirds were sampling life's sweet
nectars.
A sustainable forest
The highlight of my trip was the bromeliad clad pine- oak woodlands
in the Sierra Juarez.
The ancient Camino Real, the indigenous route connecting traders
between the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts is still open for hiking,
mountain biking or horse riding. It's wide vertically challenging
terrain has sections with signage but you must travel with Shiaa-Rua-
Via's guides. The reserve is on private property with locked
gates preventing freewheeling access.
Guides cost $20 per day and access is another $5 per day. Camping
is permitted. Spelunking is another option in the huge Arco
cave just a 10 minute walk from the group's modern and clean
cabanas.
Ixtlán's leading industry is forestry yet the reserve
lands are an unbroken green veil dappled by 12 species of pines
and six species of bromeliads growing off majestic roble oak
trees. In four days traveling around the Sierra de Juárez
I didn't see a clear-cut scar or other signs of logging so common
throughout Mexico. Only limestone rock faces provide landmarks
in this land of ridge lines rising above hidden rivers, waterfalls
and caves.
These unbroken forests are among the most beautiful and biodiverse
in the country. The resplendent quetzal makes his northern-
most roost here. Jaguars and pumas are among six species of
cats.
The region's remote beauty is becoming a lure for Mexico's vacationing
elite. President Vincente Fox stayed at Shiaa-Rua- Via's cabanas.
He has been the only sitting president to ever visit Ixtlán,
population 2,800 other than Benito Juárez who was born
in nearby Guelatao.
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Ecotourism: A growth industry
"We only take the sick trees, the ones who are attacked
by the white beetles, you will not see clear cutting here,''
Shiaa Rua-Via's leader Raul Sanchez explains as he drives me
to the cabanas six miles south of the group's office on the
square in Ixtlán. We pass the small mill and there are
about 500 logs stacked awaiting processing. Forestry employs
around 140 workers and it is a vertical operation. The logs
are converted into furniture in the local woodworking operation.
Realizing they need more diversification to keep their young
men from leaving for the United States, the town council put
ecotourism on the ballot. Three years ago the town voted to
build three cabanas for tourists. The concept divided the community,
it passed by just five votes but the program is gaining acceptance.
The building of six new cabanas is underway and should be ready
by mid- 2006. It will add another six employees to the nine-person
ecotourism program.
Raul assigned 16-year-old Rudulfo to take me on an eight- mile
waterfall hike and on our loop we found three waterfalls that
were running full. Hurricane Stan dumped copious rains on the
region six weeks earlier not only filling the arroyos but causing
widespread landslides. Our route was no longer possible in a
four-wheel drive vehicle but still navigable on foot, horse
or bike.
We carried no water. "You don't need to bring water, the
arroyos are pure," Rudolfo said. The last time I drank
water from a stream I caught giardisis in California, so I had
doubts. Mexico is a country where you don't drink the water,
just the beer, but the Sierra de Ixtlán's water is as
sweet as a Corona. Rudulfo was to be trusted.
The trail is lined with myriad sunflowers and fuscias attracting
a fluttering parade of confetti-like butterflies. As we climb
higher the oaks are covered with as many as 20 bromeliads each
with long pink projections from their watery bases. The endemic
crescent-chested warbler and the shockingly vibrant red-faced
warbler are among the birds gleaning the oak trees.
Rudolfo will likely attend college in Ixtlán and is considering
a full time job in tourism. Raul realizes the need for a staff
of properly trained guides and left for a conference in Oaxaca
City to train guides. We never had a chance to say goodbye but
I would have thanked him for hosting me and sharing the secrets
of the Sierra de Juárez.
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