Monday, October 1, 2007 12:31 PM CDT

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Quaint area offers peek into life of small Mexican town

By Scott Richardson
srichardson@pantagraph.com

COATEPEC, Mexico -- Debbie Mounts once taught bilingual education at Illinois State University. But she traded her This Old House on Mulberry Street in Bloomington for the El Retoño Ecolodge in Veracruz, Mexico.

Co-owner of the lodge, Mounts leads garden tours to see the spectacular flora and fauna of the region surrounding Coatepec, the capital of Mexico's coffee industry. The eco-lodge hosts two garden tours in October.

Life is good south of the border, she said.

"Nature surrounds us, and I wake up to the birds singing every day," said Mounts, 59. "El Retoño is ideally located. It's a 15-minute walk into town, yet it feels as if you're in the wilderness."

Mounts' love of Mexico dates to her years in high school in San Diego, Calif., where her dad was stationed as a pilot in the U.S. Navy. A trip with a group from the local YMCA took her across the border to Tijuana, where she and others helped build a school.

"That experience hooked me on Mexico," she said.

In 1989, she visited Mexico City as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer and taught courses in Chicano Studies in a master's program at the National Autonomous University. That's when she decided she wanted to stay.

Mounts, who admits to doing many things on "whims," bought a colonial estate in the San Miguel Allende to operate as a small, elegant hotel. At the same time, she opened a Spanish language school with academic credit given through California State University.

Next, she moved farther south to the colonial city of Oaxaca, where her Spanish-language school continued. Another whim led to the opening of the successful Milagros Para Ti, a shop that allowed her to work with local craftsmen and combine social goals with business.

In 1998, Mounts left Mexico to move to Bloomington-Normal where she became an assistant professor in ISU's Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She taught there two years. While in Bloomington, she renovated a house at 521 E. Mulberry St. that was one of the homes on the Old House Tour in 2001. She later took a job as project director for a state-funded English-as-a-Second-Language program for Lincoln Land Community College in Beardstown.

Mounts visited the lush green of the mist-shrouded mountains of Veracruz in 2000. She moved there a year and a half ago. Another whim led her to build the eco-lodge with her friend and business partner Paul Hebb. They took care not to disturb the wooded four-acre parcel as cabins were being built.

"The wood used was certified for logging, the septic system is non-polluting, water is recycled for garden use, rain water is collected for use, all linens and towels are 100 percent cotton and local bamboo has been used in the furnishings," Mounts said. "Our goal is to be as eco-friendly as possible."

The lodge can host as many as 16 guests at one time. The town of Coatepec has many sights for tourists, a majority of whom are from Mexico, she said.

"This quaint colonial town offers a peek into the evolving life of a small Mexican town," Mounts said. "Since the early 1800s, this has been the center of the rich, shade-grown coffee for which Veracruz is famous. The town has an interesting coffee museum and plantations to visit."

The state of Veracruz also has "incredible diversity in what it offers to the tourist: nature, colonial buildings, ancient ruins, great food and music and cultural events," she said. "It is a nice place for Americans to come and get a feel of an authentic part of Mexico that is not that well known."

But, ever larger numbers of visitors are being drawn to the region's natural wonders.

"These days, tourism centers more and more on the natural treasures of the region: waterfalls, river rafting, hiking, bird watching, and spectacular flower/orchid shows," she said.

Mounts and Hebb draw on a large group of local professionals and agencies for information on birding, flora, fauna, history and adventure sports. El Retoño offers travel packages to highlight a variety of aspects of the region's natural beauty. In addition to the garden tours, the area boasts as many as 500 bird species during migration. Birds that have been seen at the lodge range from the acorn woodpecker, golden-crowned warbler, rufus-capped warbler and dusty-capped flycatcher to the orange-billed nightingale thrush and Montezuma oropendola.

"We are on the cusp of a new wave of tourism. ... More and more, travel agencies are receiving requests from clients who want to experience nature. Tour groups see the value in protecting the natural resources and are working to do so," she said.

The government and private groups are cooperating to help preserve the area's natural treasurers. Coatepec was recently named a "Magic City," a designation which means the town will receive funds to support planned growth to avoid destruction of the area through damaging agriculture practices. Sustainable tourism also promotes jobs.

"I was happy to also discover that this area has not been destroyed as so many other regions of Mexico have been. There are local private and public groups, universities and government agencies whose goals are the protection of the natural/wild places in the state," she said.

If you go

El Retoño Ecolodge: Though located just 15 minutes walk outside Coatepec, Mexico, the lodge feels remote. The staff offers several tours focusing on the natural setting, from garden tours to bird watching, or can arrange tours of coffee plantations, hikes to waterfalls and more active sports such as river rafting.

Garden tours: Offered for nine days, Oct. 6-14 and Oct. 20-28. Cost is $950 based on double occupancy.

Other attractions: Coatepec, Mexico's coffee capital, has a coffee museum. Churches are among examples of beautiful regional architecture. Nearly nine out of 10 tourists are from Mexico, so the lodge offers the chance to immerse yourself in local culture and language.

More information: Visit www.VistasVeracruz.com or e-mail Debbie Mounts at debbie@milagrosparati.com

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