Activities in Oaxaca State
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Amigos del Sol
Professional, good-value school popular with travelers. Begin classes any weekday – call the director ( [tel] cell phone 951-1968039) between 8am and 9am, 3pm and 4pm, or after 8pm, or send an email the day before you want to start. No minimum duration and no registration charge. Students starting on Monday should arrive at the office at 8:30am.
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Instituto Cultural Oaxaca
ICO's popular seven-hour-a-day program includes intercambios and workshops in arts, crafts and culture; many classes are held in the school's spacious gardens and terraces. There's a US$55 registration fee.
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Deep Blue Dive
Based in Beach Hotel Inés; the instructor here is also PADI-certified.
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Oasis Surf Academy
Oasis Surf Academy, in the Rinconada area above Playa Carrizalillo, offers classes of 1½ to two hours with experienced and qualified local teachers for M$585, which includes the rental of a board. It’s associated with Oasis Surf Factory, run by local pro surfer and board maker Roger Ramírez.
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Academic Tours in Oaxaca
Academic Tours in Oaxaca offers recommended customized tours geared to clients’ personal interests, with full-day trips for two to four people typically costing M$3575 to M$4290. Particularly fascinating tours visit the religious sites in Yanhuitlán, Coixtlahuaca and San Pedro Teposcolula.
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Instituto de Lenguajes Puerto Escondido
Offers good language classes taught by native Spanish speakers, with an emphasis on conversation skills, plus a variety of complementary activities, including surfing, cooking and salsa lessons.
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Servicios Ecoturísticos La Ventanilla
Some 2.5km along the road west from Mazunte a sign points left to Playa Ventanilla, 1.2km down a dirt track. The small settlement here includes the palapa of Servicios Ecoturísticos La Ventanilla. Servicios Ecoturísticos is Ventanilla’s successful conservation and ecotourism cooperative. Most popular are its 10-passenger canoe trips on a mangrove-fringed lagoon where you’ll see endangered river crocodiles (there are about 1000 of these in the 230,000-sq-meter local protected area) and lots of water birds (most prolific from April to July). For the best wildlife-spotting, go in the early morning. Servicios Ecoturísticos also offers three-hour horseback rides (M$250), spec…
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La Casa de Mis Recuerdos
A marvelous, aesthetic décor prevails throughout this 10-room guesthouse. Old-style tiles, mirrors, masks and all sorts of other Mexican crafts adorn the walls and halls. The best rooms overlook a fragrant central garden; two have air-con and two have a shared bathroom. The large breakfast, a highlight, is served in a beautiful dining room. Host Nora Valencia also offers cultural tours and cooking classes. There’s a minimum stay of three nights. The owners also offer a B&B with similarly excellent breakfasts in two beautifully decorated smaller houses not much further from the center: Encanto Jalatlaco (Niños Héroes 115; singles/doubles including breakfast M$1170/1560; [n…
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Rancho Buenavista
Based at a ranch west of Monte Albán, Rancho Buenavista is perfect for active travelers interested in regional rock-climbing, mountaineering, hiking and mountain-biking expeditions, with varied grades of difficulty. Durations are from half a day up, and the guides are professional, friendly, qualified and experienced. There are accommodations for 20 people at the Rancho in ecocabins with private bathrooms and communal kitchen, costing M$300 per person including breakfast. Most half-day activities cost M$500 to M$600, one-day outings are around M$600 to M$800, and two days’ hiking, biking or climbing around Apoala is M$1100 to M$1400. The ranch also staffs a contact offic…
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Tierraventura
The very well-organized Tierraventura, run by a multilingual Swiss and German couple, offers a big variety of trips and activities focused on hiking, nature, meeting locals, traditional indigenous medicine and cooperating with local community tourism projects. Local guides accompany travelers wherever possible. Tierraventura can take the logistical work out of visiting places like the Pueblos Mancomunados. It also offers rare opportunities to learn about traditional medicine though a partnership with CECIPROC, an NGO working to improve health in indigenous communities, and the traditional medicine center at Capulálpam. On most trips prices range between M$700 and M$1100 p…
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Centro de Esperanza Infantil
The Centro de Esperanza Infantil is a nonpolitical, nonreligious center that sponsors and cares for kids who, without assistance, could not attend school. Many of these children shine shoes or sell gum to help with their families’ daily survival. The center has a dining room, a library, computers, classrooms and a small kindergarten, and has helped some kids continue education right through to university. The staff does a great job and welcomes donations, sponsors, volunteers and visitors. Volunteers can help with meals, the on-site medical center, admin work and classes such as art, crafts and English, and even a half-day of assistance is helpful.
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Hurricane Divers
The very professional international crew at Hurricane Divers speak English, Spanish, Dutch and German, and offer a variety of courses and dives. This is one of Mexico’s few PADI 5-Star Dive Resorts. Options include two-tank dives (M$1235), night dives (M$910) and the Introduction to Scuba Diving (M$1755 for about six hours over two days). But Hurricane’s most popular outing is a full-day excursion for M$1560 per person (minimum two people) with snorkeling and a picnic lunch. Prices above are based on two-person outings, though larger groups have discounted rates.
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Piña Palmera
Piña Palmera, an independently run rehabilitation and social integration center for physically and intellectually disabled people from rural communities, does fantastic work with workshops at its beautiful palm-grove site and on village visits. Over 5000 disabled kids, adults and family members have participated in Piña Palmera programs since 1984. Some toys and crafts made here are sold in a shop on the main road. Piña Palmera can use volunteers who speak decent Spanish and are willing to sign on for six months, though volunteer programs are flexible.
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Rutas de Aventura
Rutas de Aventura offers flexible active trips with an emphasis on sustainability and well-informed, English-speaking guides. Possibilities include early-morning kayaking and bird-watching at Laguna Manialtepec and visits to Finca Las Nieves, an organic coffee plantation in the lush inland hills near San Juan Lachao, where you can bike, hike, watch birds, learn about coffee production and the local ecosystem, and sleep in comfortable rooms and bungalows.
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Rancho Tangolunda
The well-established Rancho Tangolunda not only takes you rafting on the Copalita but also offers river and sea kayaking, horseback riding, climbing, rappelling, a 300m zip-line, walking and biking tours, canyoneering and bird-watching. Most activities cost M$250 to M$500 per person, though the more challenging rafting and kayaking options are M$600 to M$700. The rancho is about 1km inland near the Río Copalita at the east end of the Bahías de Huatulco area.
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Coco Loco Surf Club
Coco Loco Surf Club, based at México Lindo, rents surfboards for M$50 per hour or M$150 to M$200 per day, and boogie boards or snorkel gear for M$30 per hour. It also offers surfing classes with qualified French instructor David Chouard (two-hour private class for one/two people M$350/500; two-hour group class per person M$200) and three-beach ‘discovery trips’ combining snorkeling, bodyboarding and a visit to La Ventanilla for M$280 per person (minimum four people).
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Centro de Buceo Sotavento
La Crucecita ( [tel] 587-21-66; Local 18, Plaza Oaxaca Mall, Plaza Principal; [hrs] 9am-9pm); Tangolunda ( [tel] 581-00-51; Local 6, Plaza Las Conchas; [hrs] 10am-5pm Mon-Sat) is a friendly local company offering a range of options from a four-hour introduction (M$975) to full certification (five days; M$3850) to specialty night dives (M$4550). One-/two-tank dives are M$715/975. Sotavento also does four-hour snorkeling trips for M$260 per person (minimum two people).
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Azul Profundo
Several operators on and around Playa del Panteón offer a four-hour, four-beach snorkeling boat trip, including Estacahuite and La Boquilla beaches, with snorkel gear included. En route you should see turtles and, with luck, dolphins and even (from November to May) migrating whales. Azul Profundo does this trip daily at 09:30 and will pick you up and drop you off at your accommodation in Puerto Ángel or Zipolite; amiable guide Chepe speaks English and German.
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Lalo’s Ecotours
Lalo’s Ecotours is run by a lagoon local who has worked for Hidden Voyages and knows his birds. Tours are year-round, with binoculars included. Lalo speaks some English and also leads morning nature hikes, guided kayak and canoe trips, and nighttime boat trips during the periods of phosphorescence. He will arrange transportation from Puerto Escondido, or you can seek him out in the small village of Las Negras toward the lagoon’s western end.
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Mineral Springs
At Hierve El Agua, 13km southeast of Mitla, bubbling mineral springs run into bathing pools with a dramatic cliff-top location and expansive panoramas. Hierve El Agua means ‘the Water Boils,’ but the mineral-laden water is actually cold. Water dribbling over the cliff edge for millennia has created mineral formations that look like huge frozen waterfalls. Altogether the pools here make for a unique bathing experience.
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Ollin Tlahtoalli
This small operation is quickly earning a reputation for pragmatic language learning and progressive volunteer programs that focus on indigenous cultural preservation and tutoring programs for Oaxacan artisans interested in learning English. Ollin is the best option for students interested in getting beyond chalkboard grammar lessons and into the surrounding communities. Contact the school in advance for class schedules.
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Sociedad Cooperativa Turística Nueva Punta Escondido
Lanchas (fast, open, outboard boats) will take groups of four people out for an hour's turtle-spotting (and, in winter, sometimes dolphin-spotting) for around $300. Lancha owners have formed the Sociedad Cooperativa Turística Nueva Punta Escondido and you can contact them at Restaurant El Pescador or the lancha kiosk, both at the west end of Bahía Principal.
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Diving
The Huatulco bays have 13 main dive areas, with a good variety of fish and corals, as well as dolphins and sea turtles. This is a good place to learn to dive, with warm waters, fascinating marine scenery, no serious currents and calm conditions almost year-round. There's a decompression chamber in the local navy hospital. Two companies will take you diving and offer instruction.
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