The Guadalajara Reporter

Spectacular day trip: wildlife sanctuary & pristine pyramids

Jaime Villa is a farmer who decided two years ago to start a wildlife sanctuary in the foothills of the Tequila Volcano. “The land,” he explained, “belongs to our ejido and it’s too rocky for farming. However, it’s extraordinarily beautiful and home to all kinds of animals and birds. So we applied to the government to set up a Management Unit for Wildlife Conservation (Unidad de Manejo para la Conservacion de Vida Silvestre or UMA) on 433 hectares of the land and our petition was granted. During the last two years, with the help of a grant, we’ve created a nature trail 350 meters long, a site for camping and picnicking, a hanging bridge, and a mirador with a spectacular view.”

One thing the members of Ejido Emiliano Zapata (Ahualulco) have not yet created is a decent road for ordinary cars to reach the place, but lucky for us our friend Rodrigo Orozco has a Jeep and one Sunday we all got together with Jaime Villa to visit UMA Agua Blanca.

We drove toward Etzatlán on Highway 70 and, 7.3 kilometers past Teuchitlán, turned off the paved highway onto a good dirt road heading north, following Jaime in his all-terrain vehicle.

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