Cultural Tour of Oaxaca

Oaxaca International Airport is 9km from the city center. Walk immediately to the Zócalo — the main square surrounded by the state government palace, the ornate colonial Cathedral (begun 1553), and the cathedral's twin the Basilica of la Soledad. The Zócalo is the most animated public square in Mexico outside Mexico City — musicians, artisan market stalls, families, and tourists from all over the world converging on the terraced cafés under the portales. Walk north on Macedonio Alcála — the pedestrian street of galleries, jewelry shops, and mezcal bars that is the most beautiful street in Oaxaca. For dinner, Casa Oaxaca restaurant for your first authentic mole negro: a complex sauce of over 30 ingredients including chocolate, multiple dried chiles, spices, and the hierba santa herb, served over turkey in a black mole that is simultaneously rich, complex, spicy, and slightly sweet.

• ✦ Zócalo — the main square with Cathedral and government palace
• ✦ Macedonio Alcála pedestrian street — galleries and mezcal bars
• ✦ First mole negro dinner at Casa Oaxaca
• ✦ Introduction to Oaxacan mezcal — the most complex artisanal spirit in the world

Monte Albán, 9km west of Oaxaca City on a mountain ridge artificially leveled by the Zapotec people around 500 BC, is one of the most extraordinary archaeological sites in Mesoamerica — a city of pyramids, platforms, ball courts, and astronomical observation points that was the capital of the Zapotec civilization for 1,200 years. At its peak it had a population of 17,000, making it one of the largest cities in the pre-Columbian Americas. The main plaza is surrounded by four large pyramids and subsidiary platforms, with the famous “Dancers” reliefs — carved figures in various contorted positions that represent captive enemy leaders, musicians, or medical conditions (scholars disagree) — in Building L. The panoramic view from the North Platform over the entire Oaxaca Valley and the surrounding mountains is extraordinary. Return to the city for the Benito Juárez market and a lunch of tlayudas (Oaxacan flatbread).

• ✦ Monte Albán Zapotec pyramids — 1,200 years of pre-Columbian civilization
• ✦ The Dancers Building — carved stone reliefs of contorted figures
• ✦ North Platform panorama over the Oaxaca Valley
• ✦ Benito Juárez market and tlayuda lunch

The mezcal distilleries of Oaxaca's Central Valleys produce the world's most extraordinary mezcal — artisanal spirit distilled in small batches from roasted agave hearts (piñas) in clay pots or copper stills, with a complexity of flavor that industrial mezcal cannot approach. The villages of Santiago Matatlán (the self-declared "World Capital of Mezcal"), San Dionisio Ocotepéc, and Miahuatlán each have family-run palenques (distilleries) open to visitors. Watch the roasting of the piñas in underground pits (the source of mezcal's characteristic smoky flavor), the crushing under a tahona stone wheel, and the double distillation. Tasting sessions compare the flavors of different agave species — Espadín, Tobazón, Tepextate, and the extraordinary wild-harvested Tobalá and Madrecuixe. Return via Tlacolula for Sunday market (if applicable) and mezcal bar evening in Oaxaca City.

• ✦ Santiago Matatlán — the World Capital of Mezcal
• ✦ Palenque tour — piña roasting, tahona crushing, clay pot distillation
• ✦ Agave species tasting — Espadín, Tobazón, wild Tobalá
• ✦ Tlacolula Sunday market — one of Oaxaca's great traditional markets

Hierve el Agua ("The Water Boils") is a natural wonder 70km from Oaxaca City: mineral-rich spring water has petrified over millennia to create limestone terraces that cascade down a cliff face above the valley, resembling a frozen waterfall. The springs fill a series of natural pools at the top of the cliff — the main pool has extraordinary views over the Oaxaca Valley and the swimming is mineral-rich and intensely blue. The drive there passes through the weaving village of Teotitlán del Valle — where every family has a pedal loom and the village has been producing Zapotec-patterned wool rugs since before the Spanish arrived. The designs (geometric Zapotec patterns, animals, and occasionally contemporary interpretations of Picasso or Escher) are woven from hand-dyed wool on traditional wooden looms and sold directly from the weaving families' homes — one of the most authentically artisan shopping experiences in Mexico.

• ✦ Hierve el Agua — petrified mineral waterfall with swimming pool
• ✦ Natural mineral pools with Oaxaca Valley panorama
• ✦ Teotitlán del Valle weaving village — Zapotec loom rugs
• ✦ Buying directly from the weaving families

A Oaxacan cooking class is one of the great culinary experiences in the Americas — the cuisines' complexity requires instruction to understand, and the process of making mole negro from scratch (toasting and grinding the chiles, making the chocolate paste, adding the 30+ ingredients in the correct sequence) is a morning-length exercise that produces a profound respect for Oaxacan cooks. Several excellent cooking schools operate in the city; the most authentic include market visits to buy the specific Oaxacan ingredients. Afternoon: the village of San Bartolo Coyotepec, 10km south of the city, is the home of Oaxacan black clay (barro negro) pottery — the unique technique of burnishing and firing produces the extraordinary gun-metal gray sheen that has made Oaxacan pottery famous worldwide. The pottery is sold directly from the artisans' workshops.

• ✦ Oaxacan cooking class — making mole negro from scratch
• ✦ Market visit for authentic Oaxacan ingredients — dried chiles, chocolate, hierba santa
• ✦ San Bartolo Coyotepec black clay pottery workshops
• ✦ Barro negro — the gun-metal gray burnished clay unique to Oaxaca

San José del Pacífico, 140km south of Oaxaca City in the Sierra Sur mountains at 2,500 meters, is one of Mexico's most mystical and beautiful mountain villages — surrounded by cloud forest, with extraordinary views when the clouds clear, and famous for the ceremonial mushroom culture of the indigenous Zapotec shamans. The drive from Oaxaca through the pine and oak cloud forest is spectacular; the road passes through 16 dramatic mountain curves before descending toward the Pacific coastal plain. The village has several excellent rustic eco-lodges and one main street of food stalls and artisan shops. Drink a tejate (the ancient pre-Columbian drink of ground cacao, mamey, and corn flower, stone-ground by hand) from a gourd — the most ancient chocolate drink in Mesoamerica. Return to Oaxaca City for a final dinner at Origen restaurant for Rodolfo Castiñeiras' extraordinary modern Oaxacan tasting menu.

• ✦ San José del Pacífico — cloud forest village in the Sierra Sur
• ✦ Mountain drive through 16 hairpin curves of pine forest
• ✦ Tejate — ancient pre-Columbian cacao drink ground by hand
• ✦ Final Origen tasting menu dinner — modern Oaxacan cuisine

Oaxaca International Airport has good connections to Mexico City (1 hour) for international departure. A final morning at the Mercado 20 de Noviembre — the covered meat market where the smoke from charcoal grills fills the entire building as vendors prepare tasajo (dried beef), chorizo, and chicken on open grills and serve them with tortillas, guacamole, and black beans. The adjacent Mercado Benito Juárez has excellent stalls for buying Oaxacan food souvenirs: dried chiles, chocolate tablets (Oaxacan chocolate is unsweetened and mixed with cinnamon for drinking), mole pastes, and the dried grasshoppers (chapulines) that are Oaxaca's most famous snack. Take home a liter of unaged mezcal from a small producer and a barro negro vase, and the flavors of mole negro that will be impossible to recreate but equally impossible to forget.

• ✦ Mercado 20 de Noviembre — tasajo and chorizo grilled over charcoal
• ✦ Oaxacan chocolate, mole paste, and chapulines to take home
• ✦ Small-producer mezcal bottle and barro negro pottery
• ✦ Transfer to Oaxaca Airport for Mexico City connection