Huasca: the first Pueblo Mágico and where chilangos escape to the woods

Published December 4, 2022

Hidden in the forests north of Mexico City lies Huasca de Ocampo, Hidalgo, the vanguard of the wildly successful Pueblos Mágicos program and a regional boom in ecotourism.

By its nature, tourism takes an already-existing ambiance and commercializes it for outsiders. In the case of Huasca, tourists come to experience quaint stone and wood buildings with red roofs surrounded by hectares of pine forest on craggy mountains, repackaged for weekend convenience.

In 2000, the federal government decided to create Pueblos Mágicos to give some of the many near-ghost towns in Mexico a chance to cut in on the country’s huge tourism industry. Originally, the rules stated that the town in question had to preserve something special in architecture, history or cultures; not be in an area already promoted (like coastal destinations); and have infrastructure such as roads, restaurants and lodging.

It was a huge risk for the tiny town to get that infrastructure created, but the rewards were phenomenal: Huasca was the first to be considered and accepted as a Pueblo Mágico, and in 2001, it was promoted through federal tourism agencies as one of 30 towns to receive the designation.

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