Monkey Mountain Sayulita

Staying at the hostel is turning out to be more of a boon than bust. I mentioned in my previous post that one of the advantages of hostels is the collective knowledge - another advantage is safety/economy in numbers.

Yesterday we joined a group from the hostel and hiked Monkey Mountain, one of the higher hills in the area. If it were just me and my girlfriend - I'm not sure we would have done it. First, it's a ways from Sayulita - so a ride to and from is required (in this case we rented a collectivo - van taxi). Secondly - the hike isn't well marked and foreign terrain is a little intimidating without prior research/preparation.

To get to the trail head we needed to walk through some farms - skirting our way around sharp horned bulls, skittish horses and territorial dogs. The best map we had was an aerial photo of the area and written directions - so a few wrong turns were made. Through luck and collective reasoning - we reached the top. We hung out soaking up the sun and enjoying the view of Sayulita in the north and Punta de Mita (our new home as of the 17th) in the south.

Apparently there are tours up monkey mountain for $45 - I think it cost each of us around $3. I'm sure the tours have fewer missed turns - but where is the fun in that? That's all part of the adventure.



If you do hike Monkey Mountain - here is some supplementary info:

Be sure to bring plenty to drink. I had a Nalgene bottle and half a Gatoraid and probably could've gone for a little more. The trail isn't rugged but I'd recommend closed footwear. I did it in a pair of runners without problem - some of the guys had flip flops, which sucked coming down.Ticks are a problem...the group accrued quite a few - I had two myself - so check yourself frequently.

We found the directions given online missed a couple of points. We initially walked by the trail to the peak off the main track - if you start climbing a really steep hill on the main track, you've gone too far. The trail up Monkey Mountain is single track that branches left up a creek bed (there is a bit of a clearing and an irrigation pipe leading up the hill). You then come to a fork at the top of the creek, to the right is a rope up a steep slope, we took the left fork and that lead us to the top - not sure where the right fork goes.