Sights in Oaxaca State
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Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca
The beautiful monastery buildings adjoining the Iglesia de Santo Domingo house, the not-to-be-missed Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. One of the best regional museums in Mexico, this takes you right through the history and cultures of Oaxaca state up to the present day. Explanatory material is in Spanish, but you can rent good audio guides in English for around $50. Also here is a good book and souvenir shop.
A gorgeous green-stone cloister serves as antechamber to the museum proper. The museum emphasizes the direct lineage between Oaxaca's pre-Hispanic and contemporary indigenous cultures, illustrating continuity in such areas as crafts, medicine, food, drink and music. …
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Beaches
Huatulco's beaches are sandy with clear waters (though boats and jet skis leave an oily film here and there). Like the rest of Mexico, all beaches are under federal control, and anyone can use them - even when hotels appear to treat them as private property. Some have coral offshore and excellent snorkeling, though visibility can be poor in the rainy season.
Lanchas will whisk you out to most of the beaches from Santa Cruz Huatulco harbor any time between 08:00 and 17:00, and they'll return to collect you by dusk. Taxis can get you to most beaches for less money, but a boat ride is more fun. Round-trip lancha rates for up to 10 people from Santa Cruz: Playa La Entrega aro…
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Guiengola
This old hillside Zapotec stronghold, where King Cosijoeza rebuffed the Aztecs in 1496, is north of Hwy 190 from a turnoff 11km out of Tehuantepec. A sign at Puente Las Tejas bridge, just past the Km 240 marker, points to ‘Ruinas Guiengola.’ The unpaved 7km road is passable in dry weather, though the last kilometer or so (heading uphill) requires a high-clearance vehicle. The road ends at a signed trailhead, and about an hour’s sweaty walk uphill through tropical woodland gets you to the remains of two pyramids, a ball court, a 64-room complex and a thick defensive wall. Many more unexposed remains lie overgrown by the surrounding forest. You’ll also see interesting limes…
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Parque Nacional Huatulco
The Parque Nacional Huatulco protects 119 sq km of land, sea and shoreline west of Santa Cruz Huatulco, including some of Huatulco's most important coral reefs, which in the past have suffered some damage from fishing and touristic activities. Few visitors enter the national park except on guided or escorted trips, and the fee for entry to the land zone is normally taken care of by your tour operator: otherwise you can pay it from 09:00 to noon, Monday to Saturday, at the national park office.
The fee for the marine zone is collected at Santa Cruz harbor, along with another fee to enter the harbor itself. Use of non-biodegradable suntan lotions or sunscreen is prohibited …
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Zona Arqueológica
Behind the village church overlooking the main plaza, a sign indicates the entrance to Zaachila’s Zona Arqueológica, a small assortment of mounds where you can enter two small tombs used by the ancient Mixtecs. Tumba 1 retains sculptures of owls, a turtle-man figure and various long-nosed skull-like masks. Tumba 2 has no decoration, but in it was found a Mixtec treasure hoard that’s now in the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. When Mexican archaeologists first tried to excavate these tombs in the 1940s and 1950s, they were run off by irate Zaachilans. The tombs were finally excavated under armed guard in 1962. You can see photos of some of the objects that…
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Palacio de Gobierno
On the south side of the Zócalo stands the former Palacio de Gobierno, a wonder of marble and murals that houses a lovely, modern Museo del Palacio. Its stairway mural by Arturo García Bustos depicts famous Oaxacans and Oaxaca history, including Benito Juárez and his wife, Margarita Maza, and José María Morelos, Porfirio Díaz, Vicente Guerrero (being shot at Cuilapan) and Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th-century nun and love poet. The exhibitions upstairs are stunningly modern and high tech, looking at Oaxacan (and indeed world) history with lots of hands-on displays for kids. It also houses the world’s largest tortilla!
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Playa La Entrega
Playa La Entrega lies toward the outer edge of Bahía de Santa Cruz, a five-minute lancha trip or 2.5km by paved road from Santa Cruz. This 300m beach, backed by a line of seafood palapas, can get crowded, but it has calm water and good snorkeling on a coral plate from which boats are cordoned off - although the coral is in danger of being smothered in silt churned up by the cruise ships entering the bay.
'La Entrega' means 'The Delivery': here in 1831, Mexican independence hero Vicente Guerrero was handed over to his enemies by a Genoese sea captain. Guerrero was taken to Cuilapan near Oaxaca and shot.
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Museo Casa de Juárez
One of the few Mexican national heroes with an unsullied reputation, the great reforming president Benito Juárez (1806−72) was born a humble Zapotec villager in Guelatao, 60km northeast of Oaxaca. His parents died when he was three. At the age of 12, young Benito walked to Oaxaca and found work at the house of Antonio Salanueva, a bookbinder. Salanueva saw the boy's potential and decided to help pay for an education he otherwise might not have received.
Salanueva's simple house is now the interesting little Museo Casa de Juárez. The binding workshop is preserved, along with memorabilia of Benito.
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Museo Textil de Oaxaca
Of the many colonial-era museum renovations, this new textile museum is one of the city’s best, focusing on preserving Oaxaca’s traditional textile crafts through exhibitions, educational programs, bilingual lectures and weaving workshops. The elegant collection of global weaving traditions is world class. Entry, lectures and workshops are free, though some classes have a materials fee and a limit of 15 students. Travelers hunting for one of the region’s brilliant textile pieces should inquire here for advice on weavers who use sustainable methods and endangered natural fiber dying processes.
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Centro de las Artes de San Agustín
Pretty San Agustín's large, early-20th-century textile mill has been superbly restored as the Centro de las Artes de San Agustín, a spectacular arts center with two long, large halls. The lower hall is used as a gallery for often wonderful craft or art exhibitions; the upper one is a setting for concerts, conferences and other events. The center also hosts courses and workshops in a great variety of arts and crafts. Pools surrounding the building are part of a gravity-powered water system that cools the roof and also supplies a paper-making workshop down the hill.
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Bahía Maguey
Some of the western bays are accessible by road; at times groups of young men congregate in the bays' parking lots, offering to 'watch your car' and touting for the beach restaurants. A 1.5km paved road diverges to Bahía Maguey from the road to La Entrega, about half a kilometer out of Santa Cruz. Maguey's fine 400m beach curves around a calm bay between forested headlands. It has a line of seafood palapas. There's good snorkeling around the rocks at the left (east) side of the bay.
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Bahía San Agustín
If you head 1.7km west of the airport to a crossroads on Hwy 200, then 13km south down a dirt road, fording a river after 9km, you'll reach Bahía San Agustín. The beach is long and sandy, with a long line of palapa comedores, some with hammocks for rent overnight. It's popular with Mexicans on weekends and holidays, but quiet at other times. Usually the waters are calm and the snorkeling is particularly good here (some of the comedores rent out equipment).
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National Park Office
Few visitors enter Parque Nacional Huatulco except on guided or escorted trips, and the paying of the $20 fee for entry to the land zone is normally taken care of by your tour operator: otherwise you can pay it from 09:00 to noon, Monday to Saturday, at the national park office. The $21 fee for the marine zone is collected at Santa Cruz harbor, along with a $5 fee to enter the harbor itself. Use of non-biodegradable suntan lotions or sunscreen is prohibited within the national park.
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Casa de la Cultura
This former Dominican monastery is Tehuantepec’s Casa de la Cultura. It bears traces of old frescoes and has modest but interesting exhibits of traditional dress, archaeological finds, historical photos, religious regalia and the like. You may need to ask for some of the rooms to be opened. The last Zapotec king, Cosijopí, provided the funds for its construction in the 16th century, at the urging of Hernán Cortés. Staff also provide excellent tourist information.
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Bahía Cacaluta
Bahía Cacaluta is about 1km long and protected by an island, though there can be undertow. Snorkeling is best around the island. Behind the beach is a lagoon with bird life. The road to Cacaluta (which branches off just above the parking lot for Maguey) is paved except for the last 1.5km, but it can be a long, hot walk from the pavement's end, and there are no services at the beach itself. A lancha from Santa Cruz Huatulco is a much more pleasant way to get there.
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Basílica de la Soledad
The image of Oaxaca’s patron saint, the Virgen de la Soledad (Virgin of Solitude), resides in the 17th-century Basílica de la Soledad, 3½ blocks west of the Alameda. The church, with a richly carved baroque facade, stands where the image is said to have miraculously appeared in a donkey’s pack in 1543. The Virgin was later adorned with enormous worldly riches – but lost her 2kg gold crown, a huge pearl and several hundred diamonds to thieves in the 1990s.
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Playa Zicatella
Long, straight Zicatela is Puerto's happening beach, with enticing cafés, restaurants and accommodations as well as the waves of the legendary 'Mexican Pipeline,' which test the mettle of experienced surfers from far and wide. Nonsurfers beware: the Zicatela waters have a lethal undertow and are definitely not safe for the boardless. Lifeguards rescue several careless people most months (their base, the Cuartel Salvavidas, is in front of Restaurante El Jardín).
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Museo Comunitario Shan-Dany
The Museo Comunitario Shan-Dany is a good little community museum, with exhibits on local textiles, history, archaeology (it has some fine pre-Hispanic ceramic pieces), and the Zapotec Danza de las Plumas, which is danced in Santa Ana during the Fiesta de Esquipulas (January 12−14), on July 26 and during the Fiesta de Santa Ana (August 11−13), usually around noon. The museum is a good place to ask about textile workshops that you can visit.
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Museo Comunitario Ex-Hacienda El Cacique
The Museo Comunitario Ex-Hacienda El Cacique is in the former landowner’s hacienda next to the primary school. The museum has interesting material on the villagers’ 20th-century struggle for land ownership; an archaeological highlight is ‘El Diablo Enchilado,’ a pre-Hispanic brazier in the form of a bright-red grimacing face. If you find the museum closed, ask anyone to point your way to the nearby house of the encargado (keeper).
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Museo Rufino Tamayo
This top-class pre-Hispanic art museum was donated to Oaxaca by its most famous artist, the Zapotec Rufino Tamayo (1899−1991). In a fine 17th-century building, the collection focuses on the aesthetic qualities of ancient artifacts and traces artistic developments in preconquest times. It has some truly beautiful pieces and is strong on the pre-Classic era and lesser-known civilizations such as those of Veracruz and western Mexico.
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Bahía Principal
The central beach is long enough to accommodate restaurants at its west end, a fishing fleet in its center (Playa Principal), and sun worshipers and young body-boarders at its east end (called Playa Marinero). Pelicans wing in inches above the waves, boats bob on the swell, and a few hawkers wander up and down. The smelly water sometimes entering the bay from inaptly named Laguna Agua Dulce will put you off dipping away from Playa Marinero.
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Ruins
The ruins date mostly from the final two or three centuries before the Spanish conquest. At this time Mitla was probably the most important of the Zapotec religious centers, dominated by high priests who performed heart-wrenching human sacrifices. It’s thought that each group of buildings we see at Mitla was reserved for specific occupants – one for the high priest, one for lesser priests, one for the king and so forth.
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Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga
The much-visited Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga is a turtle aquarium and research center containing specimens of all seven of Mexico’s marine turtle species. They’re on view in fairly large tanks – it’s enthralling to get a close-up view of these creatures, some of which are BIG! Visits are guided (in Spanish) and start every 10 to 15 minutes, although the management is considering introducing nonguided tours.
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Monte Albán
The ancient Zapotec capital of Monte Albán stands on a flattened hilltop 400m above the valley floor, just a few kilometers west of Oaxaca. It’s one of the most impressive ancient sites in Mexico, with the most spectacular 360-degree views. This strategic position was doubtless one of the reasons why the ancient Zapotecs chose this site for their capital. Its name, Monte Albán, means White Mountain.
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Jardín Etnobotánico
In former monastic grounds behind the Iglesia de Santo Domingo, this garden features plants from around the state, including a staggering variety of cacti. Though it has been growing only since the mid-1990s, it’s already a fascinating demonstration of Oaxaca’s biodiversity. Visits are by guided tour only; for English-language tours it’s a good idea to sign up a day or two beforehand.
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