“Vive y Camina” is a recently published guide to hiking in Mexico, written by Alejandro González, founder and publisher of Bakpak Magazine and creator of the Bakpak Community of Monterrey, one of the most active groups of senderistas (hikers and trekkers) in northeastern Mexico.
Gonzalez’s goal is not so much to organize excursions to new places for already experienced hikers, but rather to lure city folk out of the metropolis and into the woods. His aim is not only to lure them, but leave them with such good feelings about their experience that they will happily come back for another hike and many more thereafter.
“There are many things in life we take for granted,” González says. “A sky of blue, a meadow, a tree. But the very fact that we can see these things at all is magic. The very fact that we can walk on two legs without falling flat on our faces is magic. If we demonstrate the value of nature, if we teach it well, in such a way that people have fun and enjoy the experience, it generates a link between them and nature and this link will be of inestimable value in absolutely everything they will ever do.”
This is truly a noble task in a society where many in the younger generation would keep their eyes glued to a smartphone screen 24 hours a day if they could get away with it.
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