How to Actually Join a Local Hike in Oaxaca (Not Just Book a Tour)
If you're hiking your way from Mexico City down into Oaxaca and don't want another generic van tour, the community worth finding is Oaxaca Hiking, a local group I found almost by accident on my first hike up La Cumbre Ixtepeji, where I made friendships that have lasted years, and what makes them different is that their routes shift with the season instead of repeating the same fixed itinerary, meaning summer means swimming under mango trees on the Mango River Hike, fall and winter shift toward the waterfalls in Santiago Apoala or deeper into the Sierra Norte, and there's even a Día de los Muertos hike and a longer trip crossing into Guatemala to climb Acatenango, so instead of booking anything in advance, the move is joining their WhatsApp group or following @oaxacahiking on Instagram once you land, and letting whatever the season is offering decide your hike.
@perronegro.tsx
8/31/20263 min read
Years later, the group still works the same way, and the routes still follow whatever the season is offering rather than repeating the same fixed itinerary, so between March and April they run the Mango River Hike, a walk along the river during mango season that ends with a swim in cool natural pools shaded by trees dropping ripe fruit you can pick up and eat right there, while later in the year it shifts toward the waterfalls in Santiago Apoala or deeper routes into the Sierra Norte, and around Día de los Muertos they'll organize something tied to that as well, so you're really experiencing whatever Oaxaca is doing at that exact moment instead of a generic template.
They also let you choose how you want to experience it, since some weeks it's a fully organized outing with transport handled and a dedicated guide, and other weeks it's community style, where everyone splits gas and pays the guide directly, which tends to be cheaper and puts you in a car with people you'll probably end up hiking with again, the same way it happened for me.
If you want to join, the best place to start is their WhatsApp group, where they post what's coming up each week along with the price and meeting point, so you can just ask a real person directly instead of guessing from a website.
WhatsApp: https://chat.whatsapp.com/FXTAcFVx5xJJsC6VH3iUTk
If you'd rather use Instagram, @oaxacahiking posts the same announcements along with photos from past trips, and their website is there if you just want to see the kind of routes they typically run before reaching out.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oaxacahiking/
Web: https://oaxaca-hiking.com/
They've also started going beyond Oaxaca, with a trip coming up that crosses through Chiapas into Antigua, Guatemala, climbing Acatenango and finishing at Lake Atitlán, which is exactly the kind of trip I would have signed up for back when La Cumbre Ixtepeji was still my only reference point for what this group could offer.
If you land in Oaxaca, don't overplan your hike from home, just message them and ask what's happening that week, because whatever the season is offering right then usually ends up being better than anything you could have picked off a list in advance, and who knows, you might walk away with your own version of those friendships.
People ask me all the time where to hike once they leave Mexico City, and I always end up telling them about my first hike with Oaxaca Hiking, which was La Cumbre Ixtepeji, and even though it was my first hike ever with them, it turned into one of those days that ends up mattering way more than you expect, because I made friends on that very first outing who I still travel and hang out with to this day, even though we all live in different cities now.
That's really the thing about this group that's hard to explain until you've done it yourself, since it's never just about the trail, it's about who ends up next to you on the way there and back, and La Cumbre Ixtepeji is a great example of why, because the hike itself takes you up through pine and oak forest with views over the whole Oaxaca valley, but what actually stays with you afterward is the conversation you had in the car, or the plans you made with someone at the top without even meaning to.
