Oaxacking Around

It is known for its textiles, especially rugs, which are woven on hand-operated looms, from wool obtained from local sheep and dyed mainly with local, natural dyes. They combine historical Zapotec designs with contemporary designs . We visit the “Vida Nueva” women cooperative

Our BIG breakfast, here we will walk thru the market until we get to the “Pasillo de Humo” a place where families buy and grill their meats for breakfast, this is also the best place in town to enjoy fresh barbacoa de chivo, (goat soup)

Matatlan Is known as The World Capital of Mezcal, most of the mezcal that is consumed in Mexico and in the world is produced in this region. We meet Carlitos, our guide for that part of the tour, he is a 4th generation Aguamiel, pulque and Mezcal producer. He will show us the pulquero agaves, and the way his family has extracted this drink for a long time. There are 3 stages for the beverage, when is freshly collected is called honey water, or aguamiel, sweet and refreshing, a few days later after it starts to ferment naturally it becomes pulque, a bit bitter and sour and you can taste some alcohol already, when it is too fermented for about 7 to 10 days they turn it into tepache by adding brown sugar or piloncillo, pineapple skins and timbre ( a vine that helps to kick the fermentation process) it is sweet and also refreshing but has the same alcohol than a beer.

Our first mezcal stop, we visit the distillery of Daniel and Cosme Hernandez, they have been distilling mezcal for four generations in copper stills. Driving thru the mountains to the other side of the city we will make our next stop in Santa Catarina Minas to visit “La Candelaria” the home of Eduardo Angeles where he produces “La Locura” the method that he uses to distill mezcal is using clay pots . This is where we see the different types of agaves and we visit their green house to learn about agave reproduction. The tour ends with a mezcal tasting.