Around Town

Ask and a volunteer from the community museum [1] may be able to find a guide (offer to pay) to lead you on a two- or three-hour recorrido (tour) around Sata Ana del Valle [2], including the presa (dam and small reservoir), a creek (where you can cool off during the summer rainy season—bring your bathing suit), a breezy mirador (viewpoint) for a spectacular valley vista, and an old gold, silver, and copper mine.

During the walk, your guide might identify and explain the uses of the many medicinal plants along the path. Be sure to ask them to point out the poison oak–like mala mujer (bad woman) bush to you. Finally, ask them to take you to shops of outstanding local weavers [3] for demonstrations and possible purchases of their work.

If you can’t get a guide, you can still do most of the walk on your own. The path to the dam takes off from Calle Plan de Ayala, on the east, uphill side of town. After about half a mile (0.8 km), bear left, around the hill. If you get confused, ask a younger person (most likely to understand Spanish) “¿Donde está la presa” (PRAY-sah), “por favor?” The viewpoint, the big moss-mottled rock about halfway up the steep, left-hand slope, sticks out of the hillside above the path to the dam.