Oaxaca with Wolf Ceramics

Day 1

Bienvenidos a Mexico! We’ll meet up with the group and get oriented with one of Latin America’s great colonial wonders: Oaxaca City. We’ll walk through the cobblestone streets and snack through its central markets, a feast of the senses where tasajo (dried meats) hang, open fires grill delicious tlayudas (toasted tortillas topped, pizza-style, with Oaxacan string cheese and thin-grilled meats), and vendors scurry past offering chapulines (roasted grasshoppers) and pastry-like pan de yema stacked in woven baskets. Yummy (even those grasshoppers, we promise). We’ll also visit Oaxaca’s incredible textile museum to see a sprawling array of textiles from the region to set the tone for our trip.

In the evening, we’ll toast the start of our adventure with local mezcal—of course—then have terrace seats overlooking Oaxaca’s flood-lit cathedral domes for an inspired, open-air dinner together.

Day 2

Oaxaca’s sense of art is vibrant, ageless—and everywhere. Today we go to its source, artist home-studios in nearby mountain villages. First we’ll drive into the Mixtec Mountains and meet local ceramicists Manuel Reyes and Marisela Gómez. They’ll invite us into their home studio and show how they use local clay and natural fibers to craft their signature figurines. Then the artist couple will sit with us for a home-cooked meal of red mole and mezcal.

Afterwards we return to the city, where the evening is ours to explore Oaxaca’s irresistible food and nightlife: world-class restaurants open for dinner and taco stands set up along the lit-up zocalo, just a few blocks from our hotel.

Day 3

Today we begin our deep-dive into the ceramics culture around Oaxaca. Many villages outside the city have been practicing their own subtly unique methods for generations using ancient techniques. We’ll visit two villages and meet up with local families to learn about their own processes and techniques for creating the art Oaxaca is known for. And there’s no better way to learn than by getting our hands dirty! We’ll harvest dirt from the earth, turning into the iconic red clay the region is known for, and learn about the in-ground firing process.

Inspired and enlightened, we return to the city this evening for a delicious tlayuda dinner at a local restaurant. Besides ceramics, Oaxaca is also known for these incredible pizza-style quesadilla-like creations topped with beans, local produce and stringy Oaxacan cheese. Get ready to fill up and toast to another unforgettable day!

Day 4

Who’s ready for art and mezcal? We venture outside the city again to a village renowned for creating Oaxaca’s praised folk art. We’ll see how the craftspeople here create fantastically colored alebrijes, a name coined by their original artist who saw these beasts in a hallucinogenic dream and was driven to show them to the world. Learn about the traditions of making these weird and amazing pieces 

Next, we meet up with a fourth-generation mezcalero in Santa Catarina Minas. We’ll learn how their passed-down, timeless techniques turn agave hearts into the smoky cousin-spirit of tequila—one of Oaxaca’s famed exports. After a traditionally cooked lunch and a tasting, or two, of the artisanal mezcal on hand, we’ll return to Oaxaca a night on our own and probably some more mezcal. Por qué no?

Day 5

Today we pack for our country retreat in the mountains, where villages devoted to arts and crafts lurk in valley shadows. We’ll stop at the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, a weaving village with about 5,000 people (and 2,000 looms). We’ll meet weavers of a local collective, who’ll demonstrate their intricate craft using natural fibers for dyes (and even a grounded insect for the bright reds), just as they have for the past fourteen generations. Then we’ll drop by a home to learn to make some local recipes and have lunch with a Zapotec family.

In the afternoon, we head to our home for the next two nights. Our own 300-year-old hacienda feels like a private retreat in the mountains. Kick back by the pool or indulge in the on-site spa before the night’s main event. A big meal with live music and more drinks await, as Sarah is preparing an unforgettable banquet meal with ingredients sourced from local organic farms and producers.

Day 6

Today is ours to enjoy. The hacienda can arrange hiking, bike riding or horseback riding across the neighboring mountain vistas, book a message or take part in a guided sweat lodge temazcal experience. These lodges have been used for purification for millennia, so we think they’ll do the trick for the morning.

We meet up in the afternoon for an up-close-and-personal meeting with a local shaman, who’ll share the secrets of a cleansing ritual that’s been in practice here for thousands of years, using smoked copal to bid farewell to negative energies. We’ll leave feeling electric and magical, and toast the results at our huge final dinner as the stars twinkle in the clear Oaxaca night sky.

Day 7

All great things come to an end, alas. We’ll have a big farewell breakfast at the hacienda: hot chocolate (not too sweet, not too rich), hand-patted just-made tortillas, huevos rancheros blanketed in a richly flavorful mole. Then we’ll bid farewell to Sarah and to Oaxaca, and pack our things for a short drive back to Oaxaca City for wherever your journey next takes you. Buen viaje!