El Comitan
Home to one of the most important botanical gardens on the peninsula, the little town is a fascinating microcosm of learning in the region, and a deep repository of understanding of the dramatic local environment.
El Comitan is a small community some 30 minutes west of the center of La Paz, the state capital of Baja California Sur. The town is a tiny coastal community on the edge of the Ensenada de La Paz, an enclosed body of water famous for the peaceful waters and the connection to the extensive coast. But the town is probably most well-known for hosting the important Northwest Biological Research Center (Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste - CIBNOR). And although most visitors will still arrive for the local beaches, and on their way around the coast to others on the La Paz bay to the north, CIBNOR hosts the magnificent botanical garden here: the Guyiaqui Ethnobiological Garden of Baja California Sur.
The garden does important work preserving the biocultural heritage of the state by collecting, disseminating, and promoting traditional and current knowledge of the flora and fauna of the area. It also maintains a documented living collection of native plant species in close collaboration with local communities who contribute their own ethno-biological knowledge. It is a fantastically important place, and a serious contributor to the overall tone and content of intellectual life in La Paz.
Visitors will pass the garden on their way to the coast. It's important to schedule a tour. That can happen only through the CIBNOR website for visits on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays between 8:30 and 10 a.m. The place is fantastic.
People get to el Comitan via La Paz. Just after the equally inviting town of Centenario, the surrounding landscape is inviting, desert and cactus. But people come to reach the coast and realize that the inland environment is rich with life and possibility, too. This is but one important stop on your trip to the north, to the beach and the fantastic dunes at el Mogote.
