August 7, 2023

The Santiago Trails in Tepoztlán

Tepoztlán, where I live, is a "magic city" in the central Mexico volcanic region. It is in the state of Morelos. Santiago is a small village that's part of the Tepoztlán municipality on the outskirts of the city. I've explored the trails of Santiago with my hiking group that meets weekly.

This hiking group has met weekly since September 2022. People of all ages and nationalities attend. Sometimes there is only one other person besides me, and other times there are over twenty. The nationalities and ages of participants vary. It gives me great joy to share my knowledge of the local trails and be together with others in nature.

This time we walked through a trail with an orchard and grazing land. It is roughly terraced with rock walls dividing sections. We saw many unusual sites, from odd shaped trees to unusual rock formations and incredible views. At the end of our hike, we visited a curious abandoned eight-sided house in the woods.

Starting Off

Santiago, Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico. A house, with the gate and bell tower, was at the end of the dirt road. Photos by author

What We Saw

The terrain was terraced, with successive flat areas delineated by ancient rock walls built without mortar. From the types of trees there, we decided it must have been an orchard. Currently some cows use the area for grazing, like they seem to do everywhere.

There were a lot of odd rock forms and weird-shaped trees. At the periphery are steeper areas leading to nice views. One of our members did some climbing to get a little bit higher on bare rock. I've included a video of her climb.

After we had our fill of hiking in this area, we walked fifteen minutes through the woods to come to an abandoned eight-sided house which I'll cover in the next section.

Here are some incredible views we had on the trail, followed by a video of a climb on bare rock.

Abandoned Eight-Sided House

After we hiked the trail, we took another trail for fifteen minutes to come upon an abandoned octagonal-shaped house in the woods. It is very unusual and well built--attractive to me even with its graffiti on the walls and animal deposits on the floors. I learned that it was left unfinished because the property ownership is in dispute.

The slideshow takes us down the dirt road to the right side of the gate with its bamboo cluster where we enter. We climb the stairs to enter the house, noticing the fine grille work on the windows and also the outdoor cupola structure. Indoors is a main room with a built-in ceramic fireplace. There are cement slabs for beds and some baths. The final slide shows a tree in the central courtyard.

Such a wonderful structure in a lovely setting! I hope the project is resurrected some day.

Humans Embedded in the Landscape

The photos below, of a tree seeming to sit on a boulder, and the one of a face appearing within the rock wall, are the sorts of things that myths are made from.

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this hike because the terrain was gentle allowing more of a focus on the unusual trees and rock forms without needing to pay such close attention to trail navigation.

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Comments

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Thanks for your blog. I’m a wheelchair user who stays in Patzcuaro in the winter. Could you recommend areas in or around your Pueblo Magico or other regions that might be wheelchair friendly. Hiking is not my forte. Thank you.

-- Claudia G.

Glad you like my blog, Claudia. Tepoztlán is cobblestoned and hilly--not a wheelchair friendly place. Although I do know someone who lives here that's wheelchair bound. He gets around by taxi and is always accompanied by a pusher. Cuernavaca, a half hour away, would be better, although that is a big city. If you look at my archives, I wrote about it. Meanwhile I will think on it and get back to you if something comes up.

--Don

Thank you for sharing this! Lovely photos and good commentary along with them - a nice sense of the terrain. I get a vicarious thrill out of reading about the life you have built there.

--Karen Nylander

It's nice to hear from an old buddy of mine from when I lived in the US over twenty years ago. Thanks, Karen!

--Don

GRACIAS Don, I loved reading and watching the videos on the Santiago, Tepoztlán hike.

--With appreciation, expat Delia

Nice to hear from you, Delia--one of my good neighbors here.

--Don