Ruta del Jefe is a binational festival celebrating adventure, education, community, and advocacy from March 21-24, 2024, at Cuenca Los Ojos in Sonora, Mexico.

When

Date: March 21

Time: 8:00 am

Details

Event Website

Organizer: Sarah Swallow

Email: info@rutadeljefe.com

Where

Cuenca Los Ojos

Sonora Mexico

This unique event promotes the rich culture and biodiversity in the borderlands, its indigenous communities, and the border wall’s effects on animal and human migration. Through adventure rides, workshops, habitat tours, bird walks, live music, local cuisine, and educational talks from conservation, indigenous and humanitarian organizations, Ruta del Jefe’s goal is to connect a community of like-minded individuals through a greater sense of understanding of the places they ride, raise money for local organizations, and create life-long advocates for the borderlands.

Registration Opens: November. Priority registration will be offered for Mexican nationals, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+. Scholarships available. Stay tuned!

The Ruta del Jefe festival and its rides occur entirely within Cuenca Los Ojos protected areas. Food and camping will be available on-site from Thursday to Sunday and included in the registration cost.

Cuenca Los Ojos means the Watershed of the Springs and is a U.S. non-profit [501(c)3] that works with its Mexican counterpart, Cuenca de Los Ojos A.C. (Civil Association), to manage the restoration and protection of 120,000 acres (49,000-ha) in the Sky Islands of Sonora, Mexico.

Located directly along the United States-Mexico border, CLO stewards the unique desert wetlands, open grasslands, and soaring mountains of the Madrean Archipelago. They are restoring and rewilding these once-degraded ranch lands by repairing waterways and reviving the natural processes of herbivory, predation, pollination, fire, carbon sequestration, and nutrient cycling. Today, CLO is home again to jaguars, ocelots, black bears, beavers, and other threatened and endangered species.

Cuenca Los Ojos is located one hour and twenty minutes from Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico; three hours and forty-five minutes from Tucson, AZ; three hours and forty-five minutes from Los Cruces, New Mexico; four hours and fifteen minutes from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua Mexico, and six hours from Hermosillo, Sonora Mexico