There’s simmering creative energy in Oaxaca, whether you’re browsing underground art, following behind a street protest or gallery-hopping in whitewashed museums. Indigenous culture is proudly on display at high-end restaurants which riff on traditional ingredient,; while slipping into a local market means tasting cooling cacao drinks from the pre-Columbian era, and maybe a handful of roasted grasshoppers. Beyond city limits are ancient pyramids for playing archeologist amid crumbling stones.
Oaxacan days tend to lapse into dreamy rhythms, backdropped by its spectacular natural setting. The thickly forested Sierra Madre mountain range brackets the city, where early mornings ignite a chorus of tropical birdsong, afternoons are siesta-slow and cool evenings draw families to stroll tree-shaded plazas. Here’s how to explore this ultra-hip yet laid-back regional capital.
Monte Alban, the ruins of the Zapotec civilization in Oaxaca
(Getty Images/iStockphoto)
What to do
Take in the local art
Work by contemporary artists from Oaxaca and beyond clash strikingly against the genteel, restored colonial mansion that houses them as the Museum of Oaxacan Painters (£1). The smaller (and free) Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photographic Centre has excellent temporary exhibitions set around a shady, plant-filled courtyard. For something grittier, head to Espacio Zapata, a gallery that features sculpture as well as the screen printing, stencils and murals that are staples of the street art scene.
Dive into living Indigenous traditions
The 950 plant species at Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden represent just 10 per cent of Oaxaca’s extraordinary biodiversity, but wandering these walled grounds is about more than native flora. It’s all about gardening as cultural history, with plots dedicated to traditional medicines and food staples in the region. Hour-long tours are £2 in Spanish and £4 in English.
While woven artwork abounds at every market here, the very finest tapestries are on display in the free-to-visit Oaxaca Textile Museum. Inside a restored 18th-century mansion, the museum has everything from handwoven rugs to multi-media installations merging weaving tradition with contemporary design.
Check out pre-Columbian culture
Just 9km from downtown Oaxaca is the Unesco-listed Monte Albán archaeological site, which Olmec, Zapotec and Mixtec peoples inhabited for some 1,500 years (£3). Think step-ridged stone pyramids, ball courts, temples and palaces on a hilltop with…
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