Pueblos Mancomunados

The experience

The leg starts at 3,200 m, where the air is thin for anyone who arrived from Oaxaca city that morning, and loses 800 m over 16 km on forest footpath and old road. The operator's walking budget is five to six hours.

The trails, the guides, the cabins and the dining rooms belong to the communities. The network dates from 1998, and the operator describes it as the first hiking and mountain-bike trail network in Mexico run directly by Indigenous communities.

Eight Zapotec communities have shared and protected this territory for more than 400 years. Tourism began in Benito Juárez in 1994 and extended to the whole Mancomún in 1998, when the Rutas de la Naturaleza were signposted and the community company Expediciones Sierra Norte opened its office in Oaxaca city. Cuajimoloyas holds a regional wild-mushroom fair on the penultimate weekend of July; Latuvi holds an apple fair on 25 and 26 July.

Where the sources disagreeA local guide is required. The communities' regulation makes the community guide obligatory, at MXN 200 to 400 per group per day according to Top10.mx in April 2026; every package the operator sells includes a guide and an access fee, and its FAQ asks visitors to use community services and to learn each village's internal rules on arrival. Book through Expediciones Sierra Norte in Oaxaca city or at the tourist office in each village. The operator asks for dark clothing in the forest, bans bright colours because they disturb wildlife, and advises against being above 3,000 m with heart or respiratory problems. The operator publishes no elevation gain and no running times; the 16 km figure is its walking itinerary, and no map is published online.