Etla Valley in the Rains: Foraging Wild Mushrooms for Oaxaca's Fog-Season Tlayudas

The rain started before dawn, the kind that doesn't announce itself but just appears — a cold curtain dragging across the Sierra Norte and pooling in the valleys below. I was standing in a muddy parking area outside San Pablo Etla at 6:30 a.m. with a plastic bag, a dull knife, and a woman named Doña Rufina who had already found three chanterelles before I'd finished lacing my boots.

Oaxaca's fog season — roughly late June through September — turns the Etla Valley into something unrecognizable if you've only visited in the dry months. The hills go green overnight. The air smells like wet pine and cow pasture. And the wild mushrooms come up fast, filling the markets and the tlayudas of every roadside comal within a week of the first serious rain. This is the version of Oaxaca that doesn't make it onto most itineraries, and that's fine by me.

1. Where the mushrooms actually are (and aren't)

Skip the organized "foraging experiences" advertised on Instagram by mezcal-and-mushroom tour companies in Oaxaca Centro. Most of them bus you to a pre-scouted hillside, hand you a basket, and charge $80 USD for what amounts to a photo op with fungi someone else already spotted. You'll learn more standing next to a vendor at the Wednesday tianguis in Etla town.

The real foraging happens in the oak and pine forests above San Agustín Etla, San Pablo Etla, and the hillsides climbing toward San Felipe del Agua. Doña Rufina — no last name offered, no website — meets a loose group of regulars at the trailhead past the old textile factory in San Agustín most mornings during the rains. She charges 150 pesos per person and doesn't speak much English. She doesn't need to. She points, you dig.

The key species to know: amarillos (chanterelles), patitas de pájaro (a branching coral fungus), and the dark hongo de llano that shows up in lower pastures after three consecutive days of rain. There's also a prized species locals call hongo de huevo — a bright orange puffball that splits open to reveal a gelatinous interior. It sounds terrible. It's extraordinary on a comal with epazote and salt.

2. The fog-season tlayuda is a different animal

Most people encounter tlayudas as the oversized, crunchy tortilla loaded with asiento, black beans, Oaxaca cheese, and maybe tasajo. That's the dry-season standard. It's good. But the rainy-season version — when the wild mushrooms are piled on instead of or alongside the meat — is the one I think about in December.

At Tlayudas Doña Petra on the road between Etla town and San Agustín (no formal address — look for the blue tarp and the smoke), the hongos go straight from the morning's market haul onto the comal. She doesn't sauté them separately. They cook directly on the asiento-smeared tortilla, steaming inside the fold, picking up char from the embers underneath. A tlayuda with hongos and quesillo runs 60–70 pesos depending on the mushroom. She's open from roughly 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and closes when the tortillas run out, which during the rains can be before noon.

I've seen food writers call the Oaxaca City tlayuda stalls near the baseball stadium the definitive version. I disagree. Those are fine after mezcal at midnight. But the Etla Valley comales are where the tortilla itself gets more attention — thinner, crispier at the edges, made from corn that was ground that morning. The toppings follow the season, not the tourist.

Stay in Oaxaca

Top-rated hotels near Oaxaca

Best locations · Verified reviews · Free cancellation

View deals

Expedia →

3. Wednesday market, and what to buy there

The Etla Wednesday tianguis is the weekly market you actually want. Enormous, loud, spilling along the main road through town from around 7 a.m. until early afternoon.

During the rains, the mushroom vendors cluster near the south end, close to the church. Prices fluctuate by the week — I paid 40 pesos for a generous bag of amarillos in July 2023, and 80 pesos for the same quantity two weeks later when the rains paused. Hongo de huevo, when it shows up, runs higher: 100–120 pesos per kilo. The vendors know what they have. Don't haggle hard.

Beyond mushrooms, the market is worth the trip for the pan de yema stalls, the enormous wheels of quesillo sold from buckets, and the mole negro paste vendors who let you taste before buying. A jar of mole negro paste from the woman at the stall nearest the parking area — hand-lettered sign, no brand name — cost me 90 pesos and outperformed every packaged mole I've bought in the city.

4. What the rain actually feels like (pack accordingly)

Nobody talks about the weather enough in Oaxaca travel writing, which drives me crazy. So here it is: the rainy season means afternoon downpours that can last twenty minutes or four hours. Mornings are usually clear or foggy. By 2 or 3 p.m., the sky opens. Temperatures in the Etla Valley during the rains sit around 18–22°C — cool enough that you'll want a light jacket in the morning fog and regret wearing it by 11 a.m.

The fog itself is the thing. It rolls down the valley walls and sits in the low spots, turning the whole landscape into something you'd expect in the Scottish Highlands, not southern Mexico. Roads get slick. Visibility drops. If you're driving to a foraging spot above San Agustín, leave before 7 a.m. while you can still see the switchbacks.

Rain boots or waterproof hiking shoes are non-negotiable. I made the mistake of wearing trail runners on my first foraging walk and spent the rest of the day with mud between my toes. The forest floor is soft clay under a layer of pine needles, and it gives way without warning.

Stay in Oaxaca

Top-rated hotels near Oaxaca

Best locations · Verified reviews · Free cancellation

View deals

Expedia →