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We've compiled the best of the best in Craft Villages of the Valles Centrales - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
Keep an eye out for the Alfarería Doña Rosa, a workshop named for the woman who invented the technique for giving the pottery its distinctive gloss. The revered craftswoman, famous for her photos with visiting celebrities, died in 1980, but her descendants continue making pottery the old-fashioned way. The workshop, where shelves upon shelves with items for sale line a small courtyard, is open daily 9–6.
The roofless ruins of a church and monastery called the Ex-Convento de Santiago Apóstol is Cuilapam's claim to fame. The long, narrow church was begun in 1535 but never finished. Columns that would have supported the roof still stand ready. Vincente Guerrero, one of the heroes of the country's battle for independence, was executed in the adjacent monastery in 1831. A large painting of him is in the room where he was sequestered.
In a painstakingly restored monastery is the Fundación Cultural Rodolfo Morales, funded by the village's most famous resident, the late artist Rodolfo Morales. There are exhibits of religious art from the monastery, as well as some of the master's own work.
Near the entrance to Ocotlán the workshops of the Aguilar sisters are brimming with distinctive figurines fashioned from red clay. The sisters, now elderly, might be there to show you around their adjoining workshops. If not, one of their children or grandchildren will. Their shops are clustered near each other on the road, so it's easy to go from one to the next. You can find these figures in the markets and shops of Oaxaca City, but at extremely inflated prices.
Just behind the Temple de Santa María Natividad in Zaachila is the small Zona Arqueológica, with a pair of underground tombs that are fun to explore. A pair of eerie carved owls guards one of the graves containing a noble named Lord Nine Flower. He was buried along with an unidentified young man among riches that rivaled those of Tumba 7 at Monte Albán. These treasures, however, are in the archaeological museum in Mexico City.
