Everybody knows what Fiestas Patrias look like in a city: the square, the bunting, the crowd, the fireworks.
Almost nobody sees what the same month looks like twenty minutes up a dirt road â tricolour paint drying on a school wall, papel picado strung between two mango trees, a stage half built on a village basketball court.
September is also when the Sierra Madre is at its biggest: jungle green to the ridgeline, rivers running, waterfalls that are actually waterfalls. This is the version of the holiday the postcards miss.
Filmed on the route by one of our riders.
The flag goes up in the mountains too
Everybody knows what Fiestas Patrias look like in a city: the square, the bunting, the crowd, the fireworks. Fewer visitors ever see what the same month looks like twenty minutes up a dirt road.
The Sierra Madre starts immediately behind Puerto Vallarta. Follow the RĂo Cuale inland from the bridges downtown and within half an hour you are among ranchos and small villages that have nothing to do with the tourist coast â and in September, every single one of them is wearing the flag.
Painted tricolour stripes on a whitewashed wall. Paper bunting strung between two mango trees over an empty road. A basketball court with a stage at one end and a sound system that will be doing damage at two in the morning. This is the version of the holiday the postcards miss, and in September it is simply what the route looks like.
Every village does its own Grito
The Grito is not a Mexico City thing that everyone watches on television. It is the same ceremony, performed everywhere at once, at every scale â a governor to a state, a mayor to a city, and a village delegate to eighty people and a lot of children on the basketball court.
Out in the sierra the small ones are the good ones. The bell is often the church bell. The sound system is somebody's cousin. Half the people shouting ÂĄViva MĂ©xico! are related to each other. And it lands harder for exactly that reason.
You are unlikely to be in a rancho at eleven at night, and we do not run tours then. But ride through in the middle of September and you will pass the preparation: the stage half built, the bunting already up, the tricolour paint still drying on the school wall. It gives the whole ride a different weight.
September is also when the mountain is at its biggest
The rainy season peaks now. That is not a warning â it is the reason to come.
- The jungle is as thick as it gets all year. May's straw-coloured hills are gone; everything is green to the ridgeline.
- The rivers are running. The crossings that are ankle-deep in March are proper crossings in September, and the waterfall stop on our routes is actually a waterfall rather than a trickle.
- The trails have texture. Mud, puddles, water. If you came to ride an ATV, this is the month it feels like riding an ATV.
- The rain has a schedule. Storms here are late-afternoon and evening events. Mornings are clear, washed and cool â which is why every route we run leaves early.
The trade-off is honest: you will get dirty, and there is a chance the afternoon closes in. We ride in the morning precisely to stay ahead of it, and if the weather is genuinely unsafe we move you rather than take you out in it.
The ride that follows the river
The route that suits September best is the one built around water. The private RĂo Cuale ATV tour is three hours: out of downtown, up along the river the city is named after, into the mountains, with a river stop that still feels like somewhere only locals go, a waterfall you can swim under, and a tequila tasting with your guide at the end.
It is private, like everything we run, so the pace is your group's. No experience is needed â the machine takes ten minutes to learn â and single or double rider is your choice.
If you want longer and higher, the Sierra Madre ATV Adventure goes further up and through more villages. If you would rather design the day yourself, ATV A La Carte lets you pick the route and tell the guide what you actually want to see â which, in September, is a reasonable thing to want a say in.
What to wear in a wet month
- Closed-toe shoes. Non-negotiable, and they will get wet. Old trainers, not the ones you like.
- Clothes you do not care about. Mud comes off skin easily and off white shorts never.
- A dry change and a towel in the car. Between the river, the waterfall and the possibility of rain, you are coming back damp.
- Sunscreen anyway. Overcast here still burns.
- Phone in a waterproof pouch if you want photos at the crossings. We supply the helmets, goggles and gloves.
The tequila at the end has a local cousin
Every ATV route we run finishes with a tequila tasting, which in Jalisco is less a gimmick than a formality â this is the state tequila comes from, and the town of Tequila is a few hours inland from here.
Worth knowing while you are up in these particular mountains: the Sierra Madre behind Puerto Vallarta has its own agave spirit, raicilla, distilled for generations in the highland towns south and east of the bay. It is not tequila and it does not pretend to be. If you develop a taste for it in September, ask your guide where to buy a bottle that came from someone they know.
Go in the morning, celebrate at night
September gives you both halves of Mexico in one day: the mountains at their fullest before noon, and the plaza with the flag on it after dark. They are twenty minutes apart.
Book the ride early, be back by early afternoon, sleep it off, and go find a square. Everything is on the tours page â and if you tell us which days you are here in September, we will tell you which morning to take.
