During a recent outing organized by Guadalajara’s Museo de la Ciudad, a friend of mine, Leopoldo De Leon, enthralled museum director Monica del Areanal and myself as he described the marvels of a vast forest over 3,000 hectares in size, located in the green hills between Tapalpa and Chiquilistlan.
“It’s called Reserva Rancho Mazati and has 70 kilometers of rustic brechas leading to utterly charming rivers and springs and a huge volcano and awe-inspiring giant monoliths that make the Great Rocks of Tapalpa look like peanuts.”
The description by Polo (his nickname) was irresistible and an overnight campout was arranged for May 1.
That morning I was ready and rearing to go, with boxes, bags, rucksacks and a tent piled in my living room, when the phone started jumping off the hook.
“There are narco blockades everywhere,” my callers informed me. “Semi-trailers and buses burning on the highways. Better stay home!”
I called my colleague Mario, who was joining us on the expedition. “Semis on fire?” he inquired. “Don’t worry, the flames will be out in an hour and then we’ll go.”
We set off a bit late, squeezed past a huge burned-out hulk on the road to Tapalpa and headed toward our destination. Of course, we had to eat and luckily just happened to be in the vicinity of La Culebra Restaurant, famous for its exquisite carnes asadas.
Well fed, we met up with Rancho Mazati representative Gerardo Gutierrez, who took us to one of many entrances to the ecological reserve, strung along an eight-kilometer stretch of the Tapalpa-Chiquilistlan road. A sign at this gate announced that we would find La Zona de Campamentos inside, as well as 12 outdoor attractions comprising giant rocks to deep arroyos and bubbling brooks, all linked together by hiking, biking and equestrian trails.
Gerardo took us to the campsite, which overlooks a small lagoon with a majestic view of tree-covered mountains as far as the eye could see.
“The name Mazati is from a Nahuatl word meaning deer,” he told us. “And just about everything you can see out there belongs to this ecological reserve.”
Handing us the key, Gerardo assured us that we would be perfectly safe and the only thing to worry about was “keeping warm in the night.”
We camped on both sides of a tejaban, an open-sided shelter over two rustic picnic tables. As the sun set, the woods glowed red, while the new moon rose overhead, so bright we put away our flashlights.
“The temperature is 15 degrees,” Mario informed us as we started cooking supper.
“It’s now down to 14,” said Mario, 20 minutes later. Soon it was 13, and with a light wind blowing we were soon crawling into our sleeping bags. Whippoorwills serenaded us all night as the temperature continued to drop to nine degrees. If that’s what it’s like in May (Jalisco’s hottest month), I wonder how cold it gets in January.
The next morning Polo and Monica arrived. “First I’m going to show you las Piedras Agujeradas (the Hole-y Rocks),” said Polo.
As we drove along a leaf-covered brecha through luxuriant foliage, Polo gave us a running explanation: “This forest is now incredibly lush, but it wasn’t always like this. Twenty years ago, when Rancho Mazati was started, these woods had been devastated by 100 years of logging. Since then, with the cooperation of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, a million and a half new trees have been planted and Mazati is now a model for successful reforestation. Speaking of trees, that one is a Sad Pine, an endangered species that only grows between Chihuahua and Jalisco (Pino Triste or Pinus lumholtzii) and this one here is a Tilia mexicana (linden or basswood tree) with wood as soft and light as balsa, but strong. It’s very rare, but here in Mazati we have a 20-hectare forest of these trees, the only such forest in the world.”
Suddenly Polo finished talking, stopped the car and jumped out. “We’re only a ten-minute walk from the Piedras Agujeradas,” he said.
We plunged down a long, steep slope covered with oak leaves and pine needles. After 20 minutes of slipping and sliding, we could just mak
e out the peaks of the Hole-y Rocks above the tree tops. “There they are. We’ll be there in ten minutes,” he exclaimed.
“Ten minutes?” I said, pulling on my thorn-proof leather gloves. “Okay. Now I know those are ranchero minutes. Vamonos!”
I won’t say how long it actually took before we stepped out of the woods and onto a rocky prominence where, right before our eyes, rose one of the Piedras Agujeradas in all its hole-y glory, a sort of Flintstone-age apartment building. Almost all the openings are curved at the top and flat on the bottom.
“You won’t believe it,” said Polo, “but one of those holes is big enough to hold an entire house.”
We learned that Mazati plans to build an adventure park around these extraordinary rocks, which, I suspect, will someda
y be as famous as Tapalpa’s Piedrotas, but much more fun to explore.
To round out the day, we headed uphill to a lookout point called El Divisadero, which offered us a magnificent view of our surroundings, crowned at the very peak by two of Jalisco’s most famous rocks, called Los Frailes, the Monks. The Fat Monk is 2,670 meters high and the Skinny Monk is 2,700 meters above sea level.
“Mazati is also a bird sanctuary,” mentioned Polo, “and the perfect place to see hawks and eagles. One of our special projects is the reintroduction of a native bird that was once nearly extinct, Gould’s Wild Turkey (meleagris gallopavo mexicana).”
With a feeling that we had barely scratched the surface of all that Mazati has to offer, we headed back to Guadalajara where we ran right into – you guessed it – another narco blockade, but this time we could actually see the flames roaring just ahead of us. Fortunately, Mario was able to divert off Highway 54 and on to the road to Chapala, not exactly the most direct route between Tapalpa and Guadalajara, but eventually it got us home, already dreaming about a return trip to continue our exploration of amazing ReservaRancho Mazati.
Right now, Mazati is not open to the casual visitor, but if you are interested in seeing this fascinating wilderness for yourself, email De Leon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Also check out Mazati’s website at www.mazati.org.
How to Get There
From Guadalajara take Highway 54 south toward Colima. At Acatlan, follow the signs for the “Libre” highway to Colima and take it for 50 kilometers until you see the sign for Tapalpa (N19.98280 W103.59481). When you reach the Pemex station (N19.94768 W103.76268) at the entrance to Tapalpa, turn right and drive 9.8 kilometers northwest along the road to Chiquilistlan. The “Haciendas Los Frailes” entrance to Mazati (N20.00410 W103.81031) is clearly marked. The camping area is at N20.00612 W103.80993 and the lookout point nearest the Piedras Agujeradas is N20.01722 W103.82145. The route for getting from the former to the latter is on Wikiloc.com under “Las Piedras Agujeradas.” Driving time from Guadalajara to the campsite is less than two hours – on days without narco blockades, of course.