Secrets to an Awesome Tour

Fresh off my most recent tour to La Mixteca Baja and San Pedro Amuzgos and I am on a little bit of a high  Gotta say I was  pretty wound up before we went as this was my first time leading a group here and I was going without the backup of my trusty Oaxaca City guides and the amazing folks at our B and B in the city who are nothing short of miracle workers. I was worried about the roads and food availability and who can  speak Mixteca  and just how things would go at our stops and what if the atm’s are out of money and the list was endless   As it turns out organization, instinct, good luck and an amazing assortment of human beings who helped us made all those fears unfounded. At the risk of the humble brag here are a few things I learned

People are everything and not sure why but I always seem to get an amazing group of women to travel with- luck and sometimes the universe really does provide. This means warm hearted, positive people who can flex with what is happening. My demographic is uber curious older women with big hearts and big smiles. Though we’re open to men and have had some really fun mother/daughter dúos, older women are my target market and I’m running with it.

Guides are worth their weight in gold and I always work with local guides. Firstly because I believe in shopping local if you will and putting  $$ into the towns we visit. But mostly I believe a local guide has a better grasp and understanding of what you are seeing than a non native no matter how much they know and how many degrees they have. Not dissing anyone with a degree and experts always have good things to contribute but still. In every town we went I hired a local to be our cultural navigator.  Boy did that pay off. My guides realized I was looking for authentic  off the beaten path experiences and they delivered. Most people in these communities we visited live without cars so no need for asphalt, driveways or garages. People live down all manner of charming footworn paths and we traversed several. We saw and did things we would not have even imagined were it not for our guides.

Don’t be in a hurry. This is maybe my biggest lesson. Often I pack the agenda because I want people to feel like they’re seeing a lot. But for this trip we only had two big stops a day and so this gave us a chance to be spontaneous and enjoy what was at hand. We stopped for children’s dance performances and coconuts and tiny markets and parades and storytelling and rainstorms. All of theses made for a richer trip 

Holy moly there  is good food out there even though there is barely a restaurant review to be found on Trip Advisor for most of the towns we went to. Never again will I underestimate the power of a truly local food economy to deliver delicious fare. Plus asking people we were visiting to make us a meal was a good strategy. It put more $$ into their hands and it provided lots of hilarity watching gringas cook tortillas. 

Alcohol is important to a lot of people especially late in the day. This is a point on which I have failed miserably as a tour guide. Lucky for everyone I was smart enough to bring along Alison Albrecht, my lovely assistant in all  things Oaxaca who solved this problem and then some. Other things on her to do list - keep us hydrated, make sure we had clean clothes, make sure all young children we encountered laughed, create awesome playlists and keep everyone, including me, happy. Mission Accomplished.

Go with the flow- This might rightly be considered a subset of don't be in a hurry. Like when you think you are going to a weaving demonstration but instead you end up being the guests of honor at a circus performance with a live 5 piece band. Just smile and run with it. Or say yes when your waitress tells you her mother in law has a wood fired artisan bread business, would we like to visit? Just because we are on a tour doesn’t mean we can’t be spontaneous.

And because it bears repeating, people are everything. This tour would not have been what it was were it not for the funny, kind, welcoming and proud people of San Pedro Amuzgos and the Mixteca Baja and Costa Chica. It’s no exaggeration to say I was humbled by their generosity