Bikepacking Routes

High above the city of Oaxaca, within the lush and biodiverse Sierra Norte, the Pueblos Mancomunados alliance of villages offers an impressive eco-tourism infrastructure complete with camping areas, rustic cabañas, marked trails, and local guiding services, be it for mushroom foraging or learning about regional flora. Using low-traffic dirt and paved roads, Vuelta A Los Pueblos Mancomunados connects a number of these small settlements via the prehistoric caves of the fertile Mitla Valley, the Zapotec archeological site of Yagul, and the traditional textile hub of Teotitlán...

Looping out from Oaxaca's city centre to the mountainside settlement of San Pablo Quatro Venados, this dirt road overnighter uses a community-run eco-centre as its midway point, where camping, adobe-brick cabañas, and local fare are available. Bookended by the Zapotec archeological sites of Monte Alban and Atzompa and fluctuating between 1500m on the valley floor and 2800m in the Sierra Madre Sur, it's a dirt road route rich in history and biodiversity...