A Weekend in the City

IT'S ONE OF THE MOST culturally rich destinations in the Western Hemisphere: ruins, craft villages, rural marketplaces, and downtown galleries, museums, colonial churches and internationally acclaimed restaurants. A well-planned weekend visit in the midst of your Pacific coast vacation is worth considering, and provides an experience you might have thought would require a subsequent vacation.

Take a Friday flight and we'll have you back on the beach for Monday breakfast. (Aerotucan and Aerovega both have daily early morning flights.)

Your cabbie can take you from the Oaxaca airport with your overnight bags, right to Monte Albán where a government authorized guide will orient you to the pre-history of the region while walking you through one of the most impressive Latin American ruins. By noon you'll be downtown, checking into your accommodations.

Your host can find a guide for the next two days of touring, But spend that first afternoon doing a walking tour of a few galleries and shops, the Cathedral and Santa Domingo church, and stopping by arguably the most colorful zócalo in the country for drinks, lunch and people watching. At 5 pm you'll be ready for a tour in English of the small but impressive Rufino Tamayo Museum of Pre-Hispanic Art. Finish your day continuing to sightsee, relax a bit, have dinner, and attend folkloric dancing (a Guelaguetza) or go clubbing at La Candela.

After Saturday breakfast your guide will take you to the black pottery village of San Bartolo Coyotepec where you can witness Don Valente, son of famed potter Doña Rosa, demonstrate this ancient craft without the use of a wheel or modern tools. You can then stop by the hand-made jewelry workshop of Armando Lozano, just a minute down the road.

Back on the highway you'll have an opportunity to stop in at one or more small facilities where the residents of San Martín Tilcajete carve and paint a variety of fanciful wooden figures known as alebrijes. Next is Santo Tomás Jalieza, known for production of table runners, placemats, napkins, belts and purses, using the primitive back strap loom, and bedspreads and tablecloths using much larger machinery. About 10 minutes down the road you'll arrive in Ocotlán where you'll drop in at the workshops of the Aguilar sisters, which produce a range of clay painted figures with scenes representative of marketplaces, religious imagery, comedic love depictions and colorful fiestas. Finally, you'll have an opportunity to see Ángel Aguilar hand-forge knives and cutlery using only recycled metals. Back at your B & B or hotel by about 6, you'll have an opportunity to relax and freshen up before taking another stroll downtown and then dinner.

Your Sunday begins with a visit to the 2,000 year old Tule tree, purportedly the largest in the world. Then proceed to Teotitlan del Valle where residents using pine looms have been producing hand-woven rugs using natural dyes and traditional Zapotec designs for centuries. You'll have a demonstration of the carding, spinning, dyeing and weaving procedures.

A visit to the ruin at Mitla or perhaps a smaller ruin just off the highway should not be missed. Mitla has one of the largest craft marketplaces in the region, with unbeatable prices for clothing and jewelry. However, for color, pageantry and diversity, you won't encounter anything more interesting than the marketplace at Tlacolula, predominantly a center where Oaxacans in the region come for purchasing clothing, meats, fruits, vegetables, furniture and virtually all else of their worldly needs.

Stop by one of the many mezcal palenques where you'll witness the centuries old production technique of producing the state's famed alcoholic beverage, using an in-ground oven to bake the agave plant, a horse-drawn mill to mash the fiber, pine vats for fermentation and finally a clay and brick still.

Your final stop is the 16th century Dominican Church at Tlacochahuaya. Even those not particularly interested in old churches will marvel at the original frescoes on the ceiling and walls and the restored 17th century German organ. A brief stop here, more than at any other church or monastery in the region, will take you back centuries and give you a feeling of what it must have felt like to worship in colonial times. A fitting time to tranquilly reflect and unwind at the conclusion of a busy day.

You'll be back in town by about 6:30, in time to put your feet up and relax before a final culinary extravaganza and a fond farewell to Oaxaca, before your early morning flight lands you back on the beach.

Alvin Starkman, with wife Arlene, operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast www.oaxacadream.com