This Sport's Not For Me

It was at El Diente that I decided rock climbing is not my sport of choice.

My decision came about 40 feet up an almost-vertical rock wall in the craggy highlands just outside Guadalajara, Mexico. 

The location certainly was pretty—towering cliffs, giant boulders, blue sky, the outline of Guadalajara’s skyscrapers on the horizon about 10 miles away.

I even had a good instructor, Paco, who really was more of a coach-cheerleader-parent than instructor.  He continually shouted words of encouragement (“You can do it! I know you can!”) and assured me that the rope belay would return me to terra firma safely after I reached the goal.

The site was El Diente, an area of towering cliffs and huge boulders popular with folks who really enjoy trying to imitate Spiderman. 

El Diente (the Tooth) is named not for climbers’ teeth scattered on the ground but for a rock that actually does look like a tooth. Others in the vicinity were named the Octopus, the Skull and the Dinosaur Garden. 

I was there with a splinter group from a convention that was looking for some exercise and cheap thrills.  Why play golf like sane people when you can have fun dangling on a rope?

Eco-Tours Guadalajara, a company of athletic and mostly bi-lingual twenty-somethings, organized the mini-expedition.  Owner Luis Medina had charted a flight on a zip-line, a rappel down a 100-foot-tall boulder and the rock wall ascent. All of that was before lunch.  A short hike rounded out the day because there just wasn’t enough time for the normal fourth activity—mountain biking.

Medina is a pioneer in eco-tourism in Jalisco, the sprawling Mexican state that includes the beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, the metropolis of Guadalajara and even Tequila, the town where Jose Cuervo started making the Mexican national drink in 1795.

In fact, one of Eco-Tours Guadalajara’s most appealing tours has Tequila as its destination.  However, that outing includes tours of agave fields and then rappelling down a waterfall and taking a river swim before you get to the distillery tour.  One thing’s certain—you’ll be ready for a sample when you do get to Tequila.

Medina said the very idea of enjoying nature for nature’s sake has been slow to take root, but he feels a sense of accomplishment whenever he gains a convert, especially a Mexican convert.  He taught school for a decade before venturing into eco-tourism, but it’s clear he still has the heart of a teacher.

“The difference now,” he said, “is that my classroom has no walls.”

(For a serious research tool for planning a Guadalajara trip, find the Moon Handbook to the city by Society of American Travel Writers member and Mexico expert Bruce Whipperman.)