Oaxaca, Mexico

    For many Americans, seasonal depression is a reality. Some people just can't cheer up when the sun goes down earlier and the air turns frosty.
    The antidote? For many it is a winter getaway.
    And what better place than in Oaxaca, Mexico? It is a vibrant market town that boasts cultural attractions such as the Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca. Wonderful beaches are located in nearby Huatulco.
    Rooms at the Casa Oaxaca start at $100, and at Camino Real Oaxaca start at $215.
    There's tons to do there, and it's really easy to get to. You just hop a flight to Mexico City. which are generally pretty cheap. And the peso is much weaker than the dollar.
    It has peaks almost 10,000 feet high, caverns among the deepest in the world, virgin beaches, hidden jungles, and luminous valleys that house populations where, as a crucible, cultures of all people who once lived in its midst come together. Zapotecs, Mixtecs, and the fourteen other ethnic groups are still present in its culture and customs; even the Spaniards. Oaxaca is the most diverse state in Mexico.
     Close to the City of Oaxaca, the state capital, stands the oldest tree in the world: el Arbol de Tule, measuring 42 metres in diameter, and over 2,000 years old. This tree has witnessed a great part of Oaxacan history. The Christian era was just beginning for the Western world when a superlative cultural empire thrived in Monte Albán. It was a city inhabited by wise men, warriors, astronomers, and farmers. This cultural empire governed the destiny the people of the clouds, which later become known in Nahuatl, as the Zapotecs. Zapotecs believed that the world was ruled by a power without beginning or end, unknown, and all mighty. The supreme deity, human beings, and nature formed an indivisible whole and their interaction had to be most respectful, balanced, and grateful. Years and seasons were marked on a 365-day solar calendar, while another, a ritual calendar of 260-days, marked life codes and the times when the world self-destructed and renewed itself as if shaken by a purifying cosmic fire.
     Century upon century, the pre-Hispanic past has been transmitted from parents to children and still lives and it is manifest in the fiestas, markets, music, clothing, speech, and gastronomy. In the importance given, still, to communal work, exchange rituals, reciprocal help, and the close link between daily life and the rituals reaching the sacred spheres.  more >>