El Diente is a huge, tooth-shaped monolith which—for as long as anyone can remember—has been the favorite hangout (literally) for Guadalajara’s rock climbers to gather and practice their skills. The Tooth is located only five kilometers north of the city’s Periférico or Ring Road and is just one rock among a veritable forest of monoliths nestled between the rustic villages of Río Blanco and San Estéban.
On a normal day the only sounds you hear at El Diente are the chirping of birds and the sighing of the wind and it’s hard to believe you are only a 17-minute drive from the roar of traffic on the always busy beltway.
But September 16, 2012 was different. Rock City rocked to loud pop music and bustled with visitors, as the Grand Finale of the Vive El Diente International Festival – celebrating the extraordinary natural beauty of these rock-covered hills and assuring its future as a protected area and park – kicked in.
As I sat writing in the shadow of a giant boulder, I could see tiny figures inching their way up distant spires while other climbers close to the ground swung from one handhold to another as they racked up points in a competition to be the best boulder climber of the festival.
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“Was the festival a success?” I asked Oscar Gonzalez, one of the founders of Vive El Diente, whose aim is to protect, preserve and promote this extraordinary place. “We originally set up this festival because we were worried about a large housing development planned for the area around El Diente,” he said. “I’m happy to report that this event brought us together with those developers, who assured us they also want to see El Diente preserved as a well-maintained park, open to the public. The developers now plan to work with us and invest in this project and they even invited the festival-goers to camp on their property.”
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