Hike In The Sierra Norte, Cuajimoloyas

We had an amazing day hiking in the Sierra Norte. It's stunningly beautiful and we learned so much about the area, Indigenous history and culture, and medicinal plants. The lunch in Caujimoloyas was one of the best meals we had in Oaxaca. A wonderful experience!

I can't rave about this company enough! We did the hike at Cuajimoloyas and also arranged a private half-day tour of Monte Alban. Our guide on the hike, Diego, was very knowledgeable about Mexican history, culture and politics and made the experience much more than just a hike. The hike was about 4.5 miles in a beautiful wooded area of the mountains, had a steep down section and then a steep up - so it was a bit hard to breathe at 10,000 feet, be aware of this. Overall not too hard. Fabulous lunch at the end of the hike. Carlos, the owner of the company, was our guide at Monte Alban, and he brought along an archeologist to answer all of our questions! This was an amazing experience, we learned so much more from Carlos and the archeologist than we would have on our own. Taken together, the two guided trips greatly deepened our appreciation for native cultures, languages, and history in Mexico. I would definitely recommend booking with this company!

As a returning customer with Carlos' company, we could not give a higher review for the experiences that I've had with Coyote Aventuras! When I come back to Oaxaca, will absolutely book another excursion with Carlos! Extremely professional, excellently service oriented and provides unimaginable experiences for you and your group! Can't wait to go back and do another trip with Carlos and his team. We did the Sierra Norte, Cuajimoloyas hike - which lasted from 9AM-5PM (includes the 3 hour round trip commute from town up into the mountains). Was perfect for our bachelor party of 10 and had excellent transportation/car pickup from our hotel.

We spent the day on this beautiful home with a knowledgeable Coyote guide and a local guide from Cuayimoloyas. From the minute we left the city with our guide and driver, the amount of information and contact they gave us was more than we could get reading a dozen tour books. This was the highlight of our trip—we learned so much about every plant and its many uses from the local guide. We felt very connected to our guide by the end after several hours of hiking together. The views from the top are majestic and it was almost a spiritual experience. Afterwords we ate at a delicious and local (not overly touristy!) restaurant eating food clearly prepared with love. I’d do this tour again. Thanks for the opportunity to know so much about this area and the people and nature. It was a privilege.

What a wonderful day to spend with Paula and learn so much about the local plants! The hike was so beautiful! I highly recommend this trip. Thank you Rachel

Great experience! Our guide was really friendly and took lots of time to show us the beautiful area.

Thoroughly enjoyed our day hiking. Was a 7km intermediate walk (mainly with a path but also a bit of rock clambering). Views and scenery beautiful. It was colder than we expected. Enjoyed the breakfast provided, but the lunch lunch was amazing - with real locally cooked food in a quaint kitchen. Our guide explained a lot of info to us and was very accomodating.

Diego is an exceptional guide. He introduced us to the “pueblos mancomunados” of the Sierra Norte, identified indigenous plants and their uses, is passionate about history and indigenous cultures. As an older hiking couple, we were appreciative of his kindness and support on our hike. Our only regret is that we didn’t find and contact Coyote Aventuras earlier in our stay in Oaxaca and benefit more from their excellent services.

We did the hiking with rescue dogs and had a wonderful time. Diego, the guide, was friendly, knowledgeable, and caring. The dogs were cute and well behaved. Awesome tour company that cares about preserving the nature and communities in Oaxaca.

My tours were super amazing, yes, I took two! The Caujimoloyas and the opportunity to trek and have fun with rescue dogs from Caravana Canina. Both treks were incredibly memorable experiences; my guides were beyond super knowledgeable about the local area (particularly about the herbs and flora), really great people to spend a day of adventure with, and all-around fun. The pups were a great bunch, and the day is a delight for dog lovers. So many mushrooms and delightful picnics as an extra bonus. Thank you so much!

This hike is absolutely amazing as you're guided thru the trails and learn all about the various plants used to make medicine. The guides (Paola & Matilda and Don Tokyo) are fantastic and you get to hike to the top of a mountain 10K feet high with a spectacular view. The bridge is also exciting. You learn so much about the community and by far the best meals are here as the hot choco, bread, chicken, beans and rice are out of this world given the foods natural tastes. It's a beautiful eco tour and community. I highly recommend this tour.

Our guided hike was an amazing experience and one of the highlights of our trip to Oaxaca. Santi and Pao were excellent guides and the natural beauty of the Sierra Norte is remarkable. Pao is incredibly knowledgable about the flora and fauna of the region and showed us all of the edible plants we encountered during our hike. While the hike and Coyote staff were amazing, what stood out most was their relationship with community members in Cuajimoloyas that made the trip special. Our hosts for breakfast and lunch were community members that provided us delicious food and were gracious enough to share with us their knowledge of the land and traditions of Cuajimoloyas. Dona Marta, our lunch host, spent an extra hour with us talking with us about the medicinal uses of plants in the region that has sustained the people in Caujimoloyas for generations. Our local guide for the hike, Israel, similarly shared his knowledge about the Sierra Norte and we all walked away with a much greater appreciation for just how special a place and its people are. I recommend Coyote and this particular hike to anyone and am incredibly grateful for the experience.

My group and I did multiple adventures and had a great time. The Coyote team was super helpful and we really enjoyed the time we spent in Oaxaca, Mexico. We really enjoyed the hiking in Cerro del Jaguar and the adventures to the archeological sites.

We couldn't have been more happy with the Coyote Adventuras. The amazing Shai and her dog Mesa along with Choche our driver took us up to the Sierra Norte Mountains and were very adaptable to our needs. There were four of us and we asked if we could do a more intense/longer hike, and Shai easily adapted the plan to allow for this. The area we hiked in were unbelievably beautiful and rural. We hiked from one village to another on the first day, and then to old gold processing ruins on the second day and went swimming in the river!

For anyone considering this hike, we strongly encourage you to read the full description of it on Coyote’s website. We had read it carefully in advance and came prepared, but were surprised that many others on our trip had not. Our comments below are just to provide a little more information on how the day is structured and how the limited time on the trip is allocated. The hike is at an elevation of 10,000 feet. That means it may (or may not) be quite cool and you may (or may not) need a warm jacket or rain gear or both. Total elevation change over the entire hike is only about 1000 feet, and most of that is fairly gradual. However, when combined with the 10,000 foot elevation, some hikers may find it a bit strenuous. The trip includes two meals, breakfast and lunch, so you may (or may not) want to skip breakfast at your hotel. Overall the hike was fine. Our guides were well informed, open to questions, and did what they could to adjust the hike to the differing interests of the hikers (some of us wanted to see and learn about the flora and fauna, others wanted a fast-paced hike). Still, we were disappointed in one or two aspects. First and foremost, the website describes it as a 10 km hike. After we’d finished, our guide told us that in fact it was 5+ km. (This is consistent with a tracker one of the other hikers on our trip used, which he said reported 6+ km.) We would have preferred to spend more time hiking and to get the full 10 km hike as described. For us, too much time was spent at the two meals. (More than an hour for breakfast and 1 - 1/2 hours for lunch.) We knew the meals were included and understand that this is a source of income for the village, and that’s totally fine. Still, since it is advertised as a 10 km hike, we would have preferred to have eaten more quickly and gotten on to the hike sooner and stayed out longer. (The food was cooked and all ready to go each time when we arrived so cooking time wasn’t an issue. In addition to the meals, after breakfast more time was spent reloading us all on to the van again to drive a couple hundred yards back to a gate to fill out the waivers (it seems these could have been signed in the office in Oaxaca City while we waited for late arrivers to show up? Or at least, in the 1-1/2 hour van ride up the mountain?) As we were finally leaving the village for the hike, we had a somewhat awkward prayer-circle. Again, we sincerely welcomed the introduction to an indigenous custom, but felt it went on too long. We wish to emphasize that other potential hikers may find the meals, prayer-circle and suspended bridge more interesting than the hike; we understand this is a matter of personal preference. We mention all of this just so that potential hikers may have a better idea of how the ten hour day is structured. Although we’d have preferred a full hike, we would still say this was one of the better activities we did in Oaxaca. Great, upbeat staff and a good opportunity to see a different part of the area.

Ximena led an outstanding trip through old forests, craggy rock faces, and amazing viewpoints. Her thorough knowledge of the plant life added to a fantastic day! She was engaging, intentional, and passionate about sharing her love of mountain communities and wilderness. Everyone in the group had an amazing day, and I recommend Coyote and Ximena highly!

I had an amazing experience with Shai and Coyote Aventuras hiking in the Sierra Norte. I was the only person on the tour that day and Shai went out of her way to tailor the experience for me. The breakfast at our morning stop was one of the best meals I had in Mexico. The hike itself is through a very quiet part of the forest that feels a million miles from other people, and the views along the way, especially at lunch, are breathtaking.

I really can't speak highly enough of the overall Cayote experience and the Sierre Norte trek. We were contacted the day before the tour to be advised the planned tour guide unexpectedly pulled out and the new tour guide didn't have great English so asked if we wanted to move to a different day, which we gratefully took up. I thought this was incredibly considerate and professional as I'm sure 9/10 tours wouldn't have said anything. The fact the day we moved days meant that it was only us 2 on the tour (unbeknownst to us at the time) highlights just how seriously Coyote takes customer service. The tour started with an exquisite breakfast at a local place at the start of the trek and the day was led by Fernando (not to be confused with Francisco) and Carlos. We did a picturesque 10km loop and the route and pace was clearly tailored perfectly to our ability which the guides must have sussed out very quickly. Carlos had an encyclopedic knowledge of the plants across the terrain as we stopped countless times to better understand the name of the plant and its medicinal properties all of which was incredibly interesting. Fernando was also excellent. So friendly, personable, easy to spend the day with and he answered all of our random questions every 20 seconds. After the hike we stopped at a different local place and was treated with a delcious and diverse lunch with an array of homecooked dishes from chicken, deer (caught the previous day), pork and soup. There was no going hungry. An excellent tour with an excellent company. I wouldn't hesitate for a second booking a trip with them.

These mountains were really beautiful, and provided a real opportunty to see the fantastic scenery, and talk to the local people. The Coyote guide was backed up a local guide, and between them their knowledge of the mountains and culture was incredible. Good long walk, to a superb view point across the Coyote Canyon. The team (Juan in particular) in the office was incredibly helpful. They helped us arrange accommodation in the villages for an extra night, and a guide so we could do our own walk the following day. Beautiful place to stay over looking the village and mountain. The cabin was really good quality and had log fire (it was 3000+m up so cold at night) and good food in the restaurant. The village even had a zipline! The officestaff seeemed to be available, 24x7, and nothi seemed too much trouble. They even helped me retieve something in left in the van, a few days after the trip.

Our experience was excellent. Angel, the guide of Coyote Adventures, and Angelica, the local guide, gave us an unforgettable experience. The views we saw, the food, everything was excellent. Angel explained about the villages and Angelica showed us several local plants and their uses. We loved everything.