Zip Wiring in Mazamitla

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Another Saturday and another opportunity to travel. School has been busy and the weekends seem more appealing as an opportunity to laze about and relax rather than hop on another bus. Still, now I have visited Mexico City and Morelia there seems to be less urgency to travel and I am looking forward to just enjoying the end of the term and spending some time at home before leaving.
I did however set off for Mazamitla today as the zip wiring was still on my Mexican to do list. I walked to the bus station and inquired about the next bus. The man working there was eager to tell me that he speaks a little English and on learning I was from England exclaimed how far it is and asked if I had family in Mexico. Confused I explained that, no I am an English teacher and working here with some other teachers. He immediately looked concerned and told his colleague 'She is two continents away from her family!' He was very sweet, if a little geographically challenged.
The bus ride to Mazamitla was fairly quick and I was left on a random street and walked in the general direction of where I thought I'd glimpsed the white towers of the church. Amazingly I found my way to the central plaza without any trouble, walking past the wooden framed shops and up the narrow street. I stood in the plaza by the small white church with its Chinese-style architecture and then walked to the tourist information.
Mazamitla is a very popular holiday destination for Mexican people looking for some time in the countryside. Wooden cabanas are rented in the forest and outdoor activities such as trekking and horse riding are readily available. The name Mazamitla comes from the combination of several Nahuatl words; 'Mazatl' meaning deer, 'Mitl' meaning arrow, and 'tlan' meaning place.
At the tourist information I inquired about the zip wiring. This made rather difficult as I didn't know the spanish word for 'zip wire' and hadn't remembered to look it up before leaving. Thus I was left with one option; mime. Explaining it is something I can do here, and involves being on a wire above the forest I placed my hands above my head and ran across the room going WEEEEEEEE much to the astonishment of the woman I was talking to who then proceeded to nod and laugh and pointed me in the direction of a leaflet and map. I went off to find a taxi but as is always the case because I wanted one there were none to be found. I eventually saw one driving past and flagged it down only to find there was already a passenger. Still they urged me inside and we drove off. I assumed he would first drop off the other passenger but it soon became aparent they were only friends which led me to wonder if I'd caught the poor chap on his day off or as he was finishing work. We drove out of town to the adventure park in the woods. I soon realised I was never going to find another taxi all the way out there but fortunately my driver seemed quite content to wait for me (presumably because he got to charge a nice waiting fee too) I felt a bit out of place int he park which is obviously aimed for families to spend a whole day. There were numerous activities including paintballing, horseriding, and rafteing as well as the zip wire. As I paid for the zip wiring they seemed rather surprised I only wanted to do one thing and then leave. Still they sent me off with a guy who helped me collect the things I needed and then explained I'd have to wait for more people and invited me over to the paintbaling which he was supervising. I sat on a tree stump and chatted until someone came to collect me for the zip wire. I found myself in the company of a Mexican girl, dressed in stilleto heeled boots, a hot pants jump suit and long false nails. Well, what elsse would one wear for zip wiring?! She was actually really nice and we introduced oursleves and hopped around nervously together as the tuck left us at the first wire and we watched the guy shoot off ahead of us.
The zip wire was incredibly fun. The only downside was they aren't at enough of an angle and I apparently don't weigh enough to build up the momentum needed to slide back up to the hill on the other side and the instructor had to keep hooking me in on the last part. After the first wire we walked up the hill to the second. We did four wires in total adding up to a distance of 4 kilometres. Each was a little higher and longer than the last and the final one had us jumping off a tower and swinging right across the valley. Unfortunately for me on this one I slowed down and stopped quite a way from the end. Remembering I had seen kids on it before me pulling themselves along backwards after not reaching the far side I decided I could do the same. I turned myself arond and reached for the wire. It was hard work pulling myself up to the wire and as soon as I started to move I hit myself in the face with the camera dangling off my wrist. I wiggled backwards a bit but sadly was nowhere near as good as the kids at moving myself along. The guy slid down to rescue me and holding onto his legs I let him do the hard work as he pulled me back to solid ground.
I returned my equipment and had the taxi driver take me straight back to the bus station where, unable to get a direct bus, I bought a ticket to Jiquilpan. Arriving in Jiquilpan I decided to take the time to visit the town. It seems ridiculous that it is the closest town to Sahuyao and yet, apart from going to a music concert one evening, I haven't visited the town.
I purposefully marched down the street as if I knew where I was going and walked a nice circuit around the block, glad the man snoring beneath the brim of his hat probably didn't realise I walked past him three times. I eventually found the main plaza and the church. The church was locked so I walked on trying to find the second church whose spire I had definitely seen a few minutes before. I couldn't find it and after walking down another couple of streets in the hot sun decided I'd rather find a taxi and head back to Sahuayo, which for once, I did quite quickly.

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Comments

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Zip Wiring
This is such an exciting description, I felt like I was right there! I always wondered what one of those rides was like, so thanks for writing a story about it. Great photos too!