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Oaxaca City

We open our journey on a mountain top flattened by the ancient ones beyond Oaxaca city. There sits the great ancient center of Monte Alban. This is the grandest archaeological site in Oaxaca and a UNESCO historic gem. As we learn about what this place was likely used for, we’ll also learn about the potency of these lands, with de-colonialized knowledge never taught in our history classes. 

Afterwards we visit the pottery village of Atzompa and the home of renowned sculptural potter and storyteller, Angelica Vazquez. She will speak of maíz, which is the heartbeat of Mesoamerica. We will also visit a potter who makes traditional “to go” pots. We’ll be needing an armful of these for what we’ve got in store.  

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Teotitlan del Valle

This morning we are whisked away from the grand city and into the village realm of Oaxaca, where we’ll spend the next five days. We will be in the Tlacolula Valley, a place dotted with Zapotec villages that have been here for centuries. Here one can still feel the old rhythms of humanity in the air. Slow and warm. 

We will arrive in Teotilan del Valle, an old Zapotec village of weavers and good cooks. This will be our home base for the next four nights. After dropping our bags at our small hotel and stopping in at the old village church upon the ancient Zapotec temples, we will head to the house of our village hostess. This is where we’ll be doing our creating over the coming days.  Sitting in a circle, we will begin de-graining corn in preparation for making tortillas and do a bit of sharing. And then we’ll have our first tortilla making lesson. The corn tortilla is the very heart of ancient Mexican cuisine.  

In the afternoon we'll visit the village of San Marcos with a Zapotec family that has been making humble, elegant kitchen pottery for over 20 generations. We will learn how they make their clay and form their pots. Here too we will gather elements for our meal. A cooking pot for our nixtamal, a comal and a pichancha.  

Before dinner this evening we’ll do what every traditional house does every evening; prepare nixtamal, from which tortillas are born. 

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Teotitlan del Valle

Our first stop today is the neighborhood mill. This is the place where nixtamal becomes masa. Then to our hostess's house with our masa to make a second effort at making tortillas. It won’t be our last. 

She will also show us how tlayudas are made. These are graduate level tortillas and unique to Oaxaca. They will become the foundation of our breakfast. Oh, and there will be chocolate!

We will also visit a mezcal distillery today and learn how agave plants are turned into this elegant spirit. You are welcome to taste! Of course we’ll take some home as we’ll need it for our offering, for this drink has been at the center of rituals for ages.  

 B,L,D

Teotitlan del Valle

We leave early, before the heat, before the tourists. Our destination is Hierve el Agua, a once sacred mineral spring that has become a pilgrimage site for the Instagram posting hoards. But not if you arrive early, and that will be us. 

In this village we will also meet a rural family of corn farmers and basket makers. We’ll see how they turn locally harvested palm into baskets, aka tenates, and purchase from them a soplador, cepillo and petate. These will all come in handy later. And we’ll have lesson three in tortilla making. 

Midday we drop out of the mountains to the village of Mitla with an archeological site unique to all of Mexico. In addition to exploring this site, we will participate in a small ritual nearby. Corn will be at the heart of it. 

 B,L,D

Teotitlan del Valle

From time before memory, Sunday has been market day in Tlacolula. People come in from all the surrounding villages to shop and so will we. We will have a specific shopping list that includes things like pumpkin seeds, epazote and chepil. Our task is to find these, and other key ingredients that will go into our meal of offering tomorrow. The Tlacolula market is the best place on earth to find such things!

In the afternoon we will be at our hostess's house learning Teotitlan ceremonial protocol. How does one receive guests in the formal way? How does one gently welcome and bless their presence? How does one bless the food before it is cooked? For this is not a quick Monday lunch with us slathering together sliced bread with peanut butter and jelly to get the job done . This is an ofrenda, a gift, a ceremonial meal, and such things are best done with the heart, mind and spirit in the right place. 

We will also learn about how a village like Teotitlan keeps itself together. There are ancient systems of governance, collective effort and reciprocity that have survived the Spanish conquest and the five hundred hard years that followed. 

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 Oaxaca City

When we travel to foreign places more often than not we are receiving. We give our money in exchange for food, lodging, guiding, services, shows, products. It works out well for all involved, but is often predominantly transactional. We receive something in exchange for our money. What we are doing today is turning this around with the entire intention of giving. We give for all that we have received.  We give of our own effort and sacrifice, for these are the gifts that are most alive.  We give with grace and humble ceremony, and so our gift becomes an offering.  It is not a grand thing, it is simply a meal. Humble, worthy, timeless and welcomed.  But it comes from our energy, our effort and our good will. Today we cook, serve, eat and wash. 

Of course our hostess and her kin will be there to guide us each step of the way, for it is a traditional Zapotec dish we’ll be making.  And some of us will make tortillas. When our guests  arrive, we will greet them as we’ve been taught, and a long afternoon lunch will unfold.  We will open it, as tradition dictates, with a well deserved sip of mezcal. 

As the day fades we return to Oaxaca City and a world whose pace we are more familiar with. But before we leave, one last stop, at the cave of pedimento on the edge of Teotitlan. A place to give thanks for the abundance that has been ours and to make specific requests. 

B,L,D

Oaxaca City

After a morning circle we will walk through the old city of Oaxaca to the Rufino Tamayo Museum of Pre-Hispanic art. Think of it like a walk through an extensive family photo album full of portraits, both common and divine, from long, long ago. In the case of this place, all the portraits are in clay. And perhaps you’ll notice, or feel something, as you observe these beautiful objects in clay from ancient Mesoamerica. Maybe there will be wisps of their living spirit moving in you, born from the journey into a deeper Mexico you’ve just been on. Maybe some of what was still is. 

You will have free time today to explore the lively city of Oaxaca and being to digest the gift of giving we’ve just been immersed in.  We will gather for a lovely final group dinner, for which all we have to do is show up, eat and give thanks!

 You may leave any time you wish today.  If it isn’t too early we’ll see you for breakfast.   Buen viaje and gracias! 

Uriel was born and raised in Oaxaca City and is from a Mixe-Zapotec indigenous family. Speaking Spanish, English and French, Uriel studied Political Science and International Relations in Mexico City and France. He is pioneering conscious tourism routes into the mountainous Mixe region of Oaxaca through his company, Raiz Ayuuk, and also organizes ultra marathons in the region. Uriel undertakes these, and other projects with the desire to support initiatives that benefit the lands of his family's origins.  

  Eric is an author, photographer and entrepreneur, his work entirely focused on the understanding and recognition of traditional culture and arts. He founded and runs a cultural tourism company called Traditions Mexico and is co-owner of Living Threads Studio in Santa Fe, NM. Eric has written two books that share insights into traditional ways, people and knowledge; Fire and Clay, The Art of Oaxacan Pottery, and Oaxaca Stories in Cloth. Both look at elements of human wisdom and well-being through the lens of artisanal knowledge. He also co-created the first ever traveling exhibition focused on the humble traditional potters of indigenous Mexico, highlighting the generational knowledge and intelligent design behind their approach to work and life.