Teotitlán del Valle

Forty-five minutes east of Oaxaca City, at the foot of the Sierra Norte, Teotitlán del Valle has been a Zapotec weaving community for centuries. Families here still card, spin and dye wool with cochineal, indigo and plants from the mountains, and weave on pedal looms in open courtyards.

But the village is more than textiles. There is a church built over a pre-Hispanic temple, kitchens where mole is still ground by hand, community ceremonies that follow the agricultural calendar, and trails that climb into oak and pine forest. Teotitlán is not a museum — it is a community, and visiting it well means visiting it with someone from here.