Traveling Off the Grid, in Mexico

[amborin]

A street scene in San Juan Teitipac


Casimira Larita Sánchez and Rogelio Mateo Tirado raise animals and make cheese in rural San Juan Teitipac.


Casimira feeds leftovers from the cheesemaking process to an eager pig


A little-known 16th-century monastery is under restoration in San Juan Teitipac.



Picking a Spot, Any (Undiscovered) Spot, in Mexico

By SETH KUGEL


In “The Last King of Scotland,” which I watched dubbed in Spanish on the bus from Tapachula to Oaxaca, Mexico, last week, the Scottish character Nicholas Garrigan comes up with a travel plan: to spin a globe, to place his finger down randomly, and to go wherever it lands. His destination: Uganda. Unfortunately, it was 1971, and the brutal dictator Idi Amin had just seized power. Things do not go well.

My plan for my 10th week of travel through Latin America had just enough in common with Nicholas Garrigan’s to give me pause. I was in Mexico, a country in the throes of a murderous drug war, where I had decided to buy a Oaxaca state map, arbitrarily pick a town maybe an hour from the capital (also named Oaxaca) and settle in for the week. The only requirements were that it be small, rural and have no known tourist attractions. Rather than spinning a globe, I relied on a bus driver who suggested his own hometown to me when I told him of my quest.

This was not just an entertaining exercise. It was really an experiment about whether there were still places left in the world where travel guides and the Internet had not yet created a trail for tourists to follow — places that were still worthy of discovery, with enough activities to fill at least a few days (and of course, a place to sleep).
The place where I happened to land was San Juan Teitipac, a corn-farming hamlet (pop. 2,500) that was nine miles down a rutted road from the nearest highway. Although it merits but a stub in Wikipedia, the village, I discovered, was jammed with intriguing customs, welcoming residents, unforgettable meals, beguiling landscapes and rich history. In other words, all the things that make travel great.

Casimira Larita Sánchez and Rogelio Mateo Tirado raise animals and make cheese in rural San Juan Teitipac.San Juan Teitipac’s appeal was far from evident when I dragged my suitcase off the battered bus into a nearly empty plaza bordered by a town hall shuttered for lunch and an old church shuttered until who knows when. But things soon started looking up. As is the case in any area with no tourist infrastructure, the residents become your de facto concierges. I approached the lone soul in the vicinity, a mustachioed town gardener named Bernardo Hernández Núñez, who was as curious to see me as he was eager to help. He took a break from trimming grass to direct me to a nameless restaurant run by Teo Núñez Aguilera. She had no sooner served me beef, beans, prickly pear and bottomless limeade for 25 pesos ($2 at 12.5 pesos to the dollar) than she rushed out to find me a room to rent. Within an hour of arrival, I was settling in at the house of a retired farmer, a gentlemanly 72-year-old named Rogelio Mateo Tirado, and his wife, the town cheesemaker, Casimira Larita Sánchez.

snip

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/picking-a-spot-any-undiscovered-spot-in-mexico/?ref=todayspaper

[Kali]

1. this is the way I prefer to see places

don't mind a bit of the tourist destinations, but small rural places are my favorites by far

I love the picture of the yoked steers - you don't see that in northern Mexico although you can still find horse power being used.

[here_is_to_hope]

2. So much for that

"It was really an experiment about whether there were still places left in the world where travel guides and the Internet had not yet created a trail for tourists to follow"

Well, there was at least one.