Category: Photos

The mountain community of San Miguel Amatlan celebrated the feast of its patron saint – Michael the Archangel – the last weekend in September. As part of the festivities, the city council and the administrators of the ecotourism facility issued an invitation to mountain bikers to ride the Ruta Las Haciendas on Sunday, 28 September. The Nitos club of Oaxaca responded with 49 riders. Representatives also arrived from the La Veredita, Oaxacletos, El Camino, Madruganitos and Nocturnitos groups, as well as members of the Calpulálpam race team — a total of at least 80 riders! The town put on the feed bag for the entire group, supplying both a breakfast before and a lunch after the ride. The community president and various members of the council were on hand to personally welcome the riders, and many townspeople turned out to watch the bikers ride through town and out into the countryside. A brass band welcomed them on their return to Amatlan at the conclusion of the loop ride. Now, that’s hospitality!

The ride covered a total of 10.3 miles (16.57 km), utilizing dirt roads and a stellar single track trail running along the Papaloapam River that also gave access to the mine ruins of the Cinco Señores and Socorro haciendas. Participants pedaled up and over a number of hills, racking up 1739 feet (530 meters) of elevation gain in completing the circuit.

San Miguel Amatlan celebró su festival de Miguel el Arcángel, el santo del pueblo, durante la última semana de septiembre. Como parte de las actividades el Consejo Municipal y los Administradores de su conjunto para ecoturismo invitaron a ciclistas de llegar al pueblo por la Ruta de Las Haciendas el domingo 28 de septiembre. Cuarenta nueve socios del Club Nitos aceptó la invitación. Otros grupos llegaron desde La Veredita, Oaxacletos, El Camino, Madruganitos y Nocturnitos y también el equipo de carreras de Calpulalpam por un total de 80 ciclistas. El pueblo invitó a todos a desayunar y a comer. El presidente de la comunidad y varios miembros de Consejo nos dieron la bienvenida y mucha gente del pueblo vinieron a ver los ciclistas emprender su paseo. Una banda de pueblo nos dió la bienvenida al regreso del paseo. Un pueblo muy hospitalario! La ruta era de 10.3 millas (16.57 KM) sobre terracería y un sendero al lado del Río Papaloapam que ofreció acceso a las ruinas de las minas de Cinco Señores y la hacienda de Socorro. La ruta tenía varias colinas, por una subida total de 1739 pies (530 metros) del circuito completo.

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This Sunday morning dawned with clear skies, proffering the possibility of a ride through the countryside without afternoon showers. That turned out to be a false hope, as light rain was falling along a good part of the ride back to Oaxaca — but not enough to dampen the spirits or wash away the good feelings of the day’s outing.

Santiago Ixtaltepec is a small village not far from its more famous neighbor, Teotitlan del Valle; and both of them lie in the Tlacolula valley to the east of Oaxaca city. The terrain there is mostly flat, but we managed to find a few hills to climb on the circuitous route we took on the way out. At times the group navigated barely discernible trails across open fields, trying — unsuccessfully, it turned out — to avoid a multitude of thorn bushes that had previous claim to the territory. At least a dozen flat tires resulted from this crossing, but these were mainly discovered after the group stopped for lunch in Santiago, where it was possible to deal with all of them at the same time.

Today’s trek through the countryside totaled 28.9 miles (46.5 kilometers) for the round trip, with an elevation gain and loss of 1377 feet (419.7 meters) along the way. We crossed a series of hills to accumulate that much climbing, as the high point of the ride was only 5489 feet (1673 meters), just 365 feet (111 meters) higher than the Zocalo in the center of Oaxaca.

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