The Destination
A mountain village in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca, halfway between the capital and the coast, where the fog walks in.
We sit on federal highway 175, the road that links Oaxaca City to the coast. It is a mountain road with tight curves nearly all the way: if anyone gets carsick, take the front seat and leave early. Shared vans run from Oaxaca City, Pochutla and Puerto Escondido and drop you in the village.
We are over two thousand metres up and it gets cold, especially at night and at dawn. Bring a sweater, a jacket and thick socks even if you are coming from the beach. Fog rolls in each afternoon and settles between the pines — that is the postcard.
Walk the pine forest, watch sunrise from your terrace, drink mountain-grown coffee, sweat it out in the temazcal, and do nothing at all. The village is small and walkable; there are lookouts over the range and, on clear days, you can see all the way to the coast.
Warm clothes, comfortable shoes for steep ground, cash (mobile data comes and goes, though the hotel runs Starlink) and a real willingness to switch off.
San José del Pacífico
16.1687, -96.4926
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What to do
12 things you can actually do from here, with what they cost and when to go. Distances are from the hotel; prices belong to third parties and do change.
What people come up for: at this altitude the clouds sit in the valley and the village floats on top of them. Free from La Cumbre or Linda Vista, on foot.
A lit suspension bridge over the drop, with a zip line and a swing, inside a restaurant-lookout on the road to the coast. The best-known attraction around here, and best at sunset.
A suspension bridge to a lookout and big swings over the drop, inside the forest, next to the San José letters. Walkable, though still not signposted.
A ceremonial steam bath with river stone and capulín branches, led by a local temazcalero. The hotel has its own; the village does the long version, with chanting.
A café-gallery with a panoramic terrace and the village sign, the classic photo spot. Walk up from the centre along calle Cuauhtémoc.
Nine kilometres of dirt road between villages, almost all downhill. There are taxis back, so you never climb it again.
The Zapotec seat of the municipality, smaller and quieter, with cacao cafés. In early August it holds its Festival del Hongo, with music, art and food.
The trail from the village to the river drops eight hundred metres, and the forest changes species in front of you: from pine and oak to banana and coffee.
No city nearby, no light in the way, at 2,500 metres. On a clear night you see it from your own terrace, in a sweater.
Regional mezcal and house infusions in the tabernas; tlayudas, sweet bread and hot chocolate in the fondas. Our restaurant, right beside the hotel, makes its mushroom soup with wild fungi from here.
Textiles, carved alebrijes and the yarn mushrooms that are the local souvenir, along the highway and the main street. The hotel boutique works with regional workshops.
Pluma Hidalgo, one of the eight villages on the Sierra Sur coffee circuit. A half-day detour on the way down to the coast; you return with beans bought from the grower.
San José del Pacífico became known in the sixties for the wild mushrooms of these mountains and their ritual use among Zapotec communities. It is part of the story of this place and you can see it: in the murals, in the weavings sold on the street, even in the sculpture on the square in San Mateo, which each early August holds its Festival del Hongo with music, art and food.
Alto de la Sierra does not sell, arrange or promote the use of mushrooms or any other substance. Psilocybin mushrooms are illegal in Mexico under the General Health Law. We tell you this as part of the village's history, not as something the hotel offers.
