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“Confluences” is a book you can’t possibly put down, once you start paging through it. Whether you come across photos of prairie dogs or flamingos, blue whales or blue-footed boobies, you know immediately that Guadalajara native Alejandro Prieto loves all the members of the animal kingdom.

Beneath the soil of Jalisco lies one of the world’s greatest treasures of volcanic glass—obsidian. Amazingly, evidence shows that people were working this natural glass here more than 10,000 years ago, says local archaeologist Rodrigo Esparza.

In 1992, archaeologist Phil Weigand published sketches of several circular pyramids and a ball court he had found in the hills above Santa Rosalía, eight kilometers north of Etzatlán. 

For many years, my interest in finding caves took me to remote nooks and crannies of Western Mexico. While traveling through the backwoods, we would again and again come upon natural wonders known only to local ranchers.

Mexican long-distance thru-hiker Zelzín Aketzalli has an all-consuming goal she’s been working on for seven years.

Her mission: to connect the Pacific Crest Trail with the new National Trail of Baja California, “empowering the region’s most iconic mountain ranges and its native communities.”

The Copalita Trail is 100 kilometers long — 70 kilometers of walking and 30 of rafting — and includes five nights of camping “in a million-star hotel.”

It starts in high mountains at 3,200 meters (10,500 feet), passes through five ecosystems, takes you down the Copalita River, and ends at sea level on a gorgeous Pacific Coast beach.