8/3/2019 New York Times, Adventures Guide to Mexico

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8 TR  THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, JANUARY20, 2008 TR  9THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY,JANUARY 20, 2008

SURFING

Sayulita Surfers have been crossing the bor-

der to ride waves along Mexico’s Pacificcoast for decades, and this small coastalfishing village 30 minutes north of Puer-to Vallarta has lately achieved the per-fect mix of lively beachfront bars, surf camps and terra-cotta architecturalcharm — all, most importantly, witheasy access to numerous breaks idealfor beginners and for intermediateslooking to sharpen their technique. Ad-vanced riders might head south to thebody-wrecking barrels at Puerto Escon-dido, but the rest of us mere mortals willbe content to spend a week or two skim-ming the waves there.

An easy right break on Sayulita’s bay, just off a curving white-sand stretch of 

town beach, is where longboardersspend most of their time; if those wavesget too big, beginners can always movedown the beach and find smaller ones. Afaster left break caters to speedy short-boarders. In 2006, the Access Trips ad-venture travel company started a small-group surf itinerary to Sayulita and itssurrounding breaks, joining the pio-neering Las Olas Surf Safaris (www.surflasolas.com), which runs surf camps for women, and several others.The special flavor of the village, saysAlain Chuard, co-owner of Access Trips,comes from its friendly and eclecticpopulation (local fishermen, hippies, ex-patriates) and the town’s careful controlover development (there are no big ho-tels or big chain stores here, whereasWal-Mart has landed in Puerto Vallar-ta).

Most everything in Sayulita is withinwalking distance, from the beach to thegrocery stores and cafes in the villagecenter to the surrounding jungle. Thevillage might not be a secret anymore,but it’s far from being overrun by tour-ists. Beaches are rarely crowded, a one-bedroom villa at Villa Amor, the luxuryhotel in town, starts at $90 a night, andforeign travelers tend to be in their 20sand 30s.

Access Trips’ seven-day surf safarisare led by a local surfer, Javier Chavez,and a core team of instructors. The stu-dent-to-teacher ratio is capped at an in-timate 4 to 1, and all trip leaders are lo-cals. Days are spent surfing the bay andvisiting other secluded surf spots north

and south of Sayulita that are accessibleonly by boat. In the winter, humpbackwhales cruising by the bay are a bonus.Surfers stay in newly built bungalowswith ocean views just up the hill fromtown, and morning yoga sessions in a

private studio help ease the muscle painleft by consecutive pop-ups on the surf-board. Lunch might be grilled shrimpon the beach, and there are plenty of other outdoor activities, including guid-ed jungle treks, mountain biking andtrips to hot springs.

  Access Trips, (650) 492-4778); www.accesstrips.com; seven-day surf adven-tures from $1,885, including lodging, in-struction, all breakfasts, a lunch and twodinners, yoga and transportation, in-cluding airport transfers; Novemberthrough May.

ROCK CLIMBING

El Potrero ChicoAbout an hour northwest of Mon-

terrey, a craggy limestone outcropnamed El Potrero Chico has been qui-etly attracting rock climbers fromaround the world. What makes the areaunusual is the sheer variety of the 600-plus bolted routes — in which perma-nent artificial anchors are embedded inthe rock — all within easy access of acampground and lodge at the base of the rock.

The icing on the cake? You won’thave to share. The crowd typically topsout at 50 or 60 people, mostly a mix of Americans and Canadians and someEuropeans; on many days, you’ll prob-ably encounter just a handful of otherclimbers.

Since the climbing scene in Mexicohas yet to take off, most of the climbshave been developed by Americans inthe last decade, and routes are usuallychristened with quirky Spanish or Eng-lish names (Estrellita, Treasure of Si-erra Madre, Yankee Clipper). The bolt-ing of routes directly into the rockmakes the rugged terrain more acces-sible to a wider spectrum of climbers;an average Joe can easily try a beginnerclimb next to an awesome Jane workingon a longer, more complicated route.Limestone uplift makes for a combina-tion of crags, spires and ridges. The ter-rain and loose rock conditions are thekind of thing you’d find in the back-country (think the Wind River range inWyoming), but here, it’s all fixed-boltsport climbing instead of traditionalclimbing,i n which climbers place theirown gear to protect against falls.

Long, moderate sport routes make ElPotrero Chico a friendly place for climb-ers to work on their skills. Posada ElPotrero Chico is a family-run campsiteand lodge owned by a local residentnamed Luís Lozano. It serves the sport-

ing crowd with Wi-Fi, new casitas and a

small gear shop.El Potrero Chico is just west of the

small town of Hidalgo, where the livingis simple, with street markets andhearty food typical of northern Mexico— nopalitos, carne asada, gorditas. To

encourage climbing and environmentalefforts in the community, the climbingschool runs cleanup days in which localchildren help with the maintenance of routes by collecting trash.

“It’s a quiet and safe town with all of the services,” said Mr. Lozano, whogrew up in Hidalgo. “People return yearafter year, and some of the climbershave already moved here.”

Posada El Potrero Chico, (52-1) 81-8362-6672; www.elpotrerochico.com.mx;weeklong guided climbing trips from$1,511 a person, including guide, equip-ment, airport shuttle and lodging in acasita with private bath; Novemberthrough March.

DEEP-SEA FISHING

Cabo San LucasIn 1940, John Steinbeck embarked on

an expedition to the Sea of Cortez to cat-alog marine life along Cabo’s rocky, un-developed coastline, and found it “fero-cious with life.” Though the town of Cabo San Lucas is now known as a luxu-ry golf destination, it first earned itsreputation through its prized access towaters teeming with fish. With the Pa-cific Ocean on one side and the Sea of Cortez on the other, Cabo offers ex-

ceptional sport fishing at the confluenceof both in the harbor’s deep-water can-yons.

The area hasn’t been nicknamed the“marlin capital of the world” for noth-ing. An estimated 50,000 billfish — fast-swimming trophy fish that include mar-lin, swordfish and sailfish — are caughtevery year, and angling competitionsstir up the resort strip in the fallmonths. Sustainable tourism calls forcatch-and-release practices for billfish— their populations have steeply de-clined over the past 50 years — thoughfishing operators will let you keep com-monly caught game fish like yellowfintuna, roosterfish, Spanish mackerel and

dorado. On most fishing trips, the crewwill clean, fillet and freeze your selectedcatch to take home for eating.

While the rocky intertidal zone thatSteinbeck discovered in Cabo back thenhas been almost completely overrun by

beaches and resort development, a dayspent on the water captures some of that wonder. The quintessential Caboangler experience includes chartering asmall panga, or open fishing launch,early in the morning (unless you hap-pen to be a movie star, in which casefully serviced 110-foot boats are morecommon). Swordfish are most plentifulJanuary through June, as are sailfish,and the best conditions for blue andblack marlin are July through Novem-ber, when big storms put populations onthe move. Striped marlin is caught yearround.

“The fishing experience in Cabo canbe unforgettable, and the marlin are thebiggest challenge — they’re what peo-ple come here to catch,” said Juan Bel-tran, a reservations agent and dock-master for Pisces Fleet Sportfishing.The company’s fleet ranks No. 2 in theworld in the number of released stripedmarlin, according to the Billfish Foun-dation, a nonprofit organization thatsupports the conservation of global bill-fish populations. Recently, Mr. Beltransaid, the tight-knit fishing communityhas begun lobbying the Mexican gov-ernment to change its new regulationsthat allow midsize commercial sharkfishing boats to come as close as 10

miles to shore.Shark boats use longlines, which haveabout 1,000 hooks, and that methodre-sultsin large incidental catches of otherspecies, and the fishing community isadvocating a return to a 50-mile dis-tance to protect juvenile sharks andgame fish populations, which are foundcloser to shore. “We care about our na-ture sources here in Cabo,” said Mr. Bel-tran. “They’re the source of our liveli-hood.”

Pisces Sportfishing, (619) 819-7983;www.piscessportfishing.com; a 28-footboat charter is $560 a day, including crew, tackle, bait, lunch and fishing li-censes for four.

MOUNTAIN BIKING

Copper CanyonAlmost all visitors to the Barranca del

Cobre, or Copper Canyon — one of thedeepest and largest canyon systems inthe world — show up via train or tourbus, stopping only to take a snapshot ortwo of the gloriously bizarre rock forma-tions and caves. Actually composed of aseries of huge canyons, Copper is tradi-tionally home to the native Tarahumara

Indians, a reclusive people who still livein remote canyon villages much as theyhave for centuries.

An eight-hour drive from El Paso,Tex., the town of Creel in the state of 

Chihuahua is the gateway to Mexico’sthriving mountain and road bikingscene; every July, it plays host to a ma- jor national cycling festival and race se-ries. From this base, at an elevation of 7,600 feet, you’ll find that Copper’s insand outs are well suited to two-wheeledexploration; on a mountain bike, youcan actually smell the flowers (and feelthe dirt). Just about every kind of trailand terrain can be accessed: world-class technical single-track, forest

roads, Moab-quality slick rock, rockydesert landscape, challenging longclimbs and descents on old miningtracks, and winding back roads.

Several companies based in Moab,

Utah, including Nichols Expeditions(www.nicholsexpeditions.com) andWestern Spirit (www.westernspirit.com), offer weeklong mountain bike ex-cursions to Copper Canyon, with guidesand support vehicles. Regular riders

looking for a longer itinerary will wantto contact KE Adventure Travel, whichleads a two-week de facto Tour de Tara-humara.

“There really are epic rides for alltastes,” said David Appleton, a guidewho works with KE’s trips in Mexico.“The difficult part is sorting out all of the trails and rides, since nothing ismarked and there are just so many. Wehave been guiding and riding there for14 years and have only touched the tipof the iceberg.”

KE’s itinerary is a series of rides interrain from the highland pine forest atcanyon rims to the arid conditions at thebase. Most days average about 25 miles,and elevation tops out at 8,200 feet (withone dizzying 4,000-foot descent intoBatopilas Canyon along a switchbacktrail), but easier routes are plentiful.Nights are spent in hotels in town andlog cabin lodges along the trail. There’salso no shortage of wildlife (parrots,whitetail deer, jaguars) or scenery (cat-aract waterfalls, deserted miningclaims). But bikers say that the highestmoments of a trip here might well bethe quietest ones — a meeting with aTarahumara farmer, for instance, or afire-illuminated night spent in a cabin,far from electricity.

KE Adventure Travel, (800) 497-9675;www.keadventure.com; 13-day CopperCanyon bike trip from $2,390, including lodging and meals; late October to earlyNovember and March to early April. Æ

PHOTOGRAPHS BY ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

 ABOVE A doradopulled in ona 

fishing charter inthe Sea of Cortez.RIGHTCabo San

Lucas, now a golf 

destination, isstill a base for sport fishing.

RIGHTSurfing the Pacific off the village of 

Sayulita.BELOWSayulita 

draws begin-ners, intermedi-

ates and experts.

LEFT Copper Can- yon is often seenby railroad, butthe area is greatfor mountain bik-ing.CENTERLEFT

Climbing-routemaps for El Potre-ro Chico.

IslaHolbox

Cancún

Cozumel

CaboSanLucas

PuertoVallarta Sayulita 

OAXACASierraNorte

YUCATANPENINSULA

 BAJA

CALIFORNIA

Oaxaca 

Puerto Escondido

Creel

ElPaso

CHIHUAHUA

Barranca del Cobre

MontesAzulesBiosphereReserve

CHIAPAS

 Pacific Ocean

Gulf of Mexico Seaof 

Cortez Monterrey 

Mexico City 

El PotreroChico

UNITED STATES

MEXICO

GUATEMALA

BELIZE

HONDURASMi le s 3 00

THE NEW YORK TIMES

BONNIE TSUI is editor of “A LeakyTent Is a Piece of Paradise” (SierraClub), a collection of essays on the out-doors.

Adventure Guide to

Snorkeling with whale sharksin theYúcatan, bird watching in Chiapas

and hiking nearOaxaca.

nytimes.com/travel

ONLINE:MORE ON MEXICO

CMYK Sxxx,2008-01-20,TR,008,Cs-4C,E1