DON DIABLO, THE MAN

The DON DIABLO TRAIL RUN… a legend is born. Follow the steps of Don Victor Navarro, known locally as Don Diablo due to his wily escape from the La Paz jail many years ago when he fled into the Cacachilas Mountains. In this wilderness setting, he defied the policemen with his vaquero (cowboy) creativity more than once, switching his shoes backwards to confuse the trackers, climbing on a cow to avoid leaving footsteps, hiding in a palm tree as his pursuers passed below, and even stealing the policemen’s lunch as they rested, exhausted from the hours of unsuccessfully trying to catch the crafty Don Diablo. He remained in the Sierra Cacachilas for the rest of his life and became a famous cowboy managing cattle for the neighboring communities of Los Robles, Los Encinos, El Sargento and La Ventana. He knew the location of every trail, spring and cave like the back of his hand. He and his horse had special resting sites—Don Victor’s coffee shops—that usually consisted of a shaded spot under a tree, sometimes near a spring, and with a battered metal pot and a water bottle hanging in the branches, often nothing more. He could survive on sweet coffee and water for days but he always welcomed when an occasional mountain visitor would offer him something extra to eat or drink.