This book is intended for nature-minded day hikers heading for the Mexican backcountry. Much more than with many such guides, the main emphasis here is on understanding what is to be seen, not in cataloging numerous trails.
Mexico is a vast country, and one of the most geographically diverse countries in the world. Therefore, clearly, the twenty-one day-hike destinations included here are merely samples of Mexico's day-hike possibilities; by no means is this the final word on what a day hiker can do in Mexico.
In a sense, this a how-to book--how to make yourself into a day-hike-defining, Mexican-landscape-appreciating expert. Once you have completed a few of the hikes included here, you should be able to find and successfully conduct your own hikes anyplace in Mexico. Nearly always, among these twenty-one samples, at least one other hike will lie not too far away, or be in a very similar setting; thus these samples serve as an example of how such a hike can be done. There is a certain art to locating eligible trails, and judging their hikability, that you can learn from this how-to book.
Day hikes are not just anemic, attenuated backpacking trips. Day hikes have their own feeling, their own reason for being, their own unique manner of pleasing.... Day hikes are their own thing, and day hikers have their own identities.
Unlike backpackers, day hikers see little reason to go onto the land just to huff and puff all the time. Day hikers cherish being able to walk and calmly chat, and exchange ideas and observations with friends. They want to take their time, muse on the meaning of the lay of the land, sit on a rock as they snack on a sandwich while a nearby lizard sunbathes. Then maybe they will spend a couple of hours identifying trees, flowers, and rocks, and talking with whomever happens along. And finally, maybe early in the afternoon, how nice it would be to go back to the motel or campground in time for tea.... Day hikers are a sociable, reflective lot.
But, back to the question: Is day hiking for you?
Right now, the average reader probably is saying to himself or herself,"Sure, I would love to hike where I might see monkeys or crocodiles, where exotic birds such as motmots and trogons abound, and where other hikers met on the trail may be speaking Nahuatl or Tzotzil. But is this something that really can be done by someone like me? More importantly, is it safe?"
Physically, certainly you can do it. Most of the hikes in this book require little physical exertion, and their trailheads are accessible by cars and buses.
But is day hiking in Mexico safe?
Certain problems can affect backcountry hikers in Mexico--diseases, robbery, peasant uprisings.... Certainly these topics are daunting. However, here is the truth: If you stay reasonably informed and use reasonably good judgment, it is very unlikely that you will have problems. You will just have fun. During my own thirty years of day hiking in backcountry Mexico, I have never had any trouble of any kind. For me, Mexico's trails have always been nothing but a joy.
This is not to say that a Mexican day hike is equivalent to a stroll through Disneyland. Plant spines penetrate shoe soles, scorpions shelter beneath bushes, rocks become slippery, cattle stampede, and, yes, there's an occasional bandit or uprising. Even during the preparation of this book I was robbed of nearly everything by two fellows with a
pistolo
, but that was because I was unwisely camping overnight in the wilderness, not taking a day hike.
But I am not encouraging readers to camp overnight in the wilderness. I am encouraging day hikes, using common sense, and staying well informed.
Where are you going?
What do you want to do?
