Discover The Mexico You Thought You Knew
August 8, 2012Adventure tourism and sustainability aren’t the first words that usually spring to mind at the mention of Mexico, but on this trail-blazing mountain bike tour in Oaxaca you’ll discover a whole new side to the Mexico you thought you knew.
Mountain bike holiday specialists H&I Adventures have created a pioneering new tour in the Oaxaca region of southern Mexico, more commonly associated with fine cuisine and traditional culture than adventure sports and eco-tourism. However, the Sierra Norte mountains of Oaxaca are home to the most fantastic network of trails, carved into the landscape thousands of years ago by the indigenous Zapotec people as a means of communication and trading.
The descendants of these first Zapotecs still live in the Sierra Norte today; proud guardians of their heritage and culture, and with a very keen understanding of how their way of life in this remote part of Mexico relates to the rest of the world. This appreciation has led a group of eight villages in the Sierra Norte to create the most successful eco-tourism initiative in the whole of Mexico, and the first to be recognised officially by the government. This joint-venture is based on the premise that everyone in these eight communities should give equally to, and benefit equally from, tourism to the area, and requires that all residents give up one month a year to activities that will improve their tourism product.
