Simbiosis Tours 2026 — Mushrooms & Forest Cooking
August is the peak of the fungal year. We call it Hongosto — a Mexican play on hongo, mushroom, and agosto, August: the month when the rainy season reaches its highest point and the forests of central Mexico wake up populated overnight. Three experiences, two states, one kingdom.
Every outing is organized and guided by Simbiosis, with limited capacity and traveller's insurance. Depending on the site and the length of the day, an outing may also include an illustration class and other surprises: the forest never gives the same thing twice.
Book your place on WhatsAppCall 415 144 7944
The three dates at a glance
| Date | Where | Who it is for | Who cooks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, August 7Kids | Sierra de Santa Rosa, Guanajuato | Girls and boys aged 4 to 13 and their companions | No one: picnic-style lunch, everyone brings their own |
| Sunday, August 9Mushrooms and cooking in the forest | Sierra de Santa Rosa, Guanajuato | General public | Nelcy Martínez and Jesús Arellano, of the Agavia restaurant |
| Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 AugustFungi y Naturaleza Fest | Rancho Calixto, Amealco, Querétaro | General public, full weekend | Chef David Jahnke |
We gather mushrooms on August 7 and 9. In Amealco we do not: the ranch is a Wildlife Conservation Management Unit, so there we only observe and record.
Friday, August 7 · Kids
Friday, August 7, 2026
Sierra de Santa Rosa, Guanajuato
We meet at Rancho Peralillo. Arrive on your own or with transport arranged from San Miguel de Allende, as needed.
- Short introduction to the Fungi Kingdom, with Arif Towns Alonso
- Hiking and mushroom gathering
- Interpreting what we find
Lunch: picnic style. Everyone brings their own and, if you like, something to share. There is no guest chef on this date.
Open to girls and boys aged 4 to 13 and their companions. The first time a child lifts a mushroom off the forest floor and names it, something changes for good in how they see the woods.
Sunday, August 9 · Mushrooms and cooking in the forest
Sunday, August 9, 2026
Sierra de Santa Rosa, Guanajuato
We meet at Rancho Peralillo. Arrive on your own or with transport arranged from San Miguel de Allende, as needed.
- Introductory, immersive class on the Fungi Kingdom, with Arif Towns Alonso
- Hiking and mushroom gathering
- Identification and interpretation of the species we find
- Printed field guide
Cooking on this date: Nelcy Martínez and Jesús Arellano, chefs of the Agavia restaurant (San Miguel de Allende). They cook in the forest, on this Sunday only.
The full day: walk, recognize, name and, at the end, eat what the forest gave that morning.
Meet Agavia, the guest kitchen of August 9Who Nelcy and Jesús are, and why their pantry and ours are the same story.
Guest kitchen · Sunday, August 9 only
Agavia — San Miguel de Allende
A contemporary Mexican restaurant founded by chefs Nelcy Martínez Luna and Jesús Arellano. This December it turns six years old, holding up a menu built on native corn, pulque, ferments and Mexican herbalism, with produce from small growers and family recipes.
Agavia cooking on August 9 is not a scheduling coincidence: it is a convergence. Simbiosis has spent years arguing that the Fungi Kingdom is far wider than the mushrooms of the forest, and Agavia's pantry proves it dish by dish. In Mexico, corn, ferment and fungus are the same story told three times.
- Native cornWild mushrooms and native corn share a calendar, a milpa and a hillside. Neither makes sense without the other.
- HuitlacocheThe fungus Ustilago maydis that grows on the ear of corn: what other latitudes called a blight became a delicacy here. The clearest proof that Mexico thinks differently about fungi.
- FermentsPulque, masa, sauces. Behind almost every ferment there are yeasts at work, and yeasts are fungi too. Fermenting is mycology you can eat.
- Reviving traditionsNaming the ingredient, knowing where it comes from and who grew it. Exactly what we do on the trail with every mushroom we lift off the ground.
Not their first time
Nelcy and Jesús have cooked with us before: on September 22, 2024 they joined one of our experiences in the forest. August 9 is not a debut, it is an alliance coming back.
Chef Nelcy Martínez Luna
Chef at Agavia · culinary researcher
Born in León, Guanajuato, and a graduate of Universidad La Salle Bajío. Chef, gastronomic consultant and culinary researcher specialized in contemporary Mexican cuisine; her career has been built alongside traditional cooks across several regions of Mexico, researching ingredients, techniques and processes tied to corn and to gastronomic heritage.
She was executive chef of Aduana Vasconcelos in Campeche, where she led the opening and operation of a project centred on traditional Maya cooking; she opened Ahora Experience in El Salvador and, in 2025, Aguileño in Mérida. In 2018 she received the National Gastronomy Promotion award at the Tianguis Turístico in Mazatlán and was named Breakthrough Chef of the State of Guanajuato. In 2026 she took Agavia to the Sabores Polanco festival and represented Guanajuato as an ambassador of its cuisine at México de Mis Sabores.
Today, alongside Agavia, she is co-founder of Hoja Santa Catering, the catering house they run for weddings in San Miguel de Allende. A coeliac chef, she has developed her own line of research into gluten-free cooking, ferments and mindful eating, which will soon take shape in Amalia Bótica Gluten Free: functional baking, ferments and herbalism, her new project, about to be born.
Chef Jesús Arellano
Co-founder of Agavia · ferments and spirits
A son of San Miguel de Allende by birth and by choice: he began studying International Business and halfway through understood his place was at the stove, so he switched to Gastronomy at the Universidad Tecnológica de San Miguel de Allende in order to stay and raise the profile of the state's cooking. He does not come from luxury restaurants, but from small events and real kitchens.
A lover of Mexican spirits, it was pulque that pushed him to research cooking with ferments and Mexico's fermented drinks: Agavia was born from that. He spent three years behind the bar at Millesime developing cocktails for houses such as Diageo, Monte Xanic and José Cuervo, and this year he took Agavia's kitchen to that same festival. The Universidad Tecnológica invites him to give talks on spirits and to prepare its students for their professional exams.
That research led him to develop a line of adaptogenic mushroom vermouth, with and without alcohol: shared ground with Simbiosis, point for point. He is also co-founder of Hoja Santa Catering and of the third project of the house, Amalia Bótica Gluten Free, about to be born.
His compass is the line his mother repeats to him: when you cook with love, everything can turn out well.
Agavia. Calle del Dr. Ignacio Hernández Macías 115, Zona Centro, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.
Instagram: @agavia115 · Phone: 415 103 0933
Their other projects: Hoja Santa Catering, banquets and weddings in San Miguel de Allende · Amalia Bótica Gluten Free, about to be born.
Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 August · Fungi y Naturaleza Fest
Saturday, August 22 and Sunday, August 23, 2026
Amealco, Querétaro
A weekend festival organized by Simbiosis at Rancho Calixto. Arrive on your own or with transport arranged as needed.
- Nature observation walks: flora, fauna and funga, with no gathering
- Identification and interpretation of mushrooms
- Talks, exhibitions and fungal art
- Lodging available at the ranch
Cooking this weekend: chef David Jahnke, regional cuisine. Agavia does not take part on this date.
A whole weekend under the three F framing: Fauna, Flora, Funga. Nothing is collected here, and that is not a whim of ours: Rancho Calixto operates as a Wildlife Conservation Management Unit (UMA). We observe, we record, and we learn to read the forest without taking it away.
Discover Rancho Calixto, the site for August 22 and 23Eighty hectares of forest, lodging, food, and why nothing is gathered there.
The site · Amealco de Bonfil, Querétaro
Choosing where to hold a nature festival is, at bottom, a statement. Rancho Calixto is eighty hectares of open oak and pine forest in Chitejé de la Cruz, on the slopes of the Cerro de La Cruz, a little over ten minutes by car from the centre of Amealco de Bonfil and very close to the Red Dunes. About eighty minutes from the city of Querétaro and roughly two and a half hours from Mexico City.
- Registered UMAIt operates as a Wildlife Conservation Management Unit. That is why on August 22 and 23 we observe and record, but collect nothing.
- White-tailed deerInside runs a conservation programme for this species, historic to the region, whose population fell through human intervention. They live in an open enclosure and there are guided visits to see and feed them.
- Protected birdsThe programme also covers several forest bird species. Fauna, Flora and Funga on the same land: the three F framing, applied.
- Self-funded conservationSustainable tourism and bio-rational agriculture pay for the protection of the site. Sleeping there is, literally, funding it.
Lodging. Six wooden cabins with large windows onto the forest, for two and up to twelve people; some with a fireplace, terrace, grill or jacuzzi. There is also a camping area inside the forest. Booked directly with the ranch.
Food. On weekends the main palapa serves a grill buffet with a view over the Amealco valley, with vegetarian options. Amealco is cold country: bring a jacket even in August.
The ranch's contact. Carretera a Chitejé de la Cruz s/n, Chitejé de la Cruz, Amealco de Bonfil, Querétaro · 448 111 1290 · Rancho Calixto on Facebook. Or write to us and we will put you in touch.
Who guides you
Arif Towns Alonso
Guide · all three dates
Founder of Simbiosis. He has spent years walking the forests of Mexico, studying, identifying and sharing the Fungi Kingdom. He gives the introductory class and guides the gathering and interpretation in the field.
Nelcy Martínez and Jesús Arellano
Cooking · August 9 only
Chefs at Agavia, San Miguel de Allende. They turn what was gathered that same morning into a meal cooked in the middle of the forest. They do not take part in the Amealco festival.
Chef David Jahnke
Cooking · August 22 and 23 only
Thirty-five years of craft. Professional cook certified by the German government, Chef Educator by the World Association of Chefs, licensed in Gastronomy in Mexico and Maître Cuisinier by the culinary association of France. He runs his own cooking school in San Miguel de Allende and specializes in pre-Hispanic and mestiza Mexican cooking. He cooked with us all four Sundays of July and returns for the regional cooking at Amealco.
Prices and booking
Write to us at 415 144 7944 for prices, availability and transport options.
Special rates for families.
After the forest
Every outing leaves a trace. Relive the tours and add your own findings to the Bitácora Fungívora, the living record of the Fungívoros de Simbiosis community.
Every mushroom you photograph on the trail can become science: upload it to our citizen science project on Naturalista and your finding joins CONABIO's national biodiversity record. Walking with us is also becoming a fungívoro.