Food of the Gods Festival, Oaxaca, Mexico

The mountainous southern state of Oaxaca has so many contrasts and attractions that it could well be the major focus of any trip to Mexico. Its southern border is the Pacific Ocean, including the up-and-coming mega-resort of Huatulco and the lesser-known, but edenic, beach town of Puerto Escondido.

From the Pacific, the state rises into a high interior, then drops to a tropical lowland – a year-round source of fresh fruit – on its northern border with the state of Vera Cruz. On its eastern border, Oaxaca shares the Isthmus of Tehuantepec with neighboring Chiapas. The isthmus is the narrowest point in Mexico’s “wasp waist” as its landmass swings east toward Quintana Roo and the Yucatan.*

At the center of the state, whose tallest peaks rise more than 12,000 feet, lie the majestic temple ruins at Monte Alban, a Zapotec Indian sacred city and religious center that predated the Aztec invasion and dominance of Mexico.

The Zapotecs were only one of many distinct cultures that Oaxaca’s jumbled geography helped create. Although its highlands are criss-crossed by several major valleys, trade and communication between various indigenous communities was difficult.

As a result, the state’s cuisine is the most varied in Mexico. Some people refer to Oaxaca as “the land of the seven moles,” referring to the deep, dark, complex chocolate-based sauces that are the pride of Mexican cuisine. Moles (“moe-lays”) compare in subtlety and range – though not in flavor – to the finest curries, and are one of cooking’s great gifts to pork and poultry.

In the modern era, the state has turned its varied cuisines into an occasion for celebration, the annual Food of the Gods Festival in its namesake capital city of Oaxaca. The 2003 edition, the eighth one so far, will take place Oct. 4-11. Visitors attending the festival will be able to dine at several local restaurants that feature native cuisines, take cooking classes, tour food markets, attend wine and mescal tastings, and get a sense of the 220,000-person city.

As travelers discover Oaxaca, the state has become more accessible. A superhighway connects Oaxaca City to Mexico City, 250 miles north. The airport has direct connections to Mexico City.

(*The isthmus is so narrow, in fact, that when there was talk of building a second inter-ocean canal to supplement the aging Panama Canal, one plan called for the construction of ultra high-speed rail connections between Oaxaca’s southern Pacific port at Salina Cruz and Vera Cruz State’s port of Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf of Mexico. 

(Ideally, ships from North America, Asia and Europe would have saved 1,000 miles of travel by bypassing the Panama Canal. Automated cargo handling equipment would unload cargos, place them on high-speed trains, which would rush overland in under two hours to deliver cargo for loading on ships at the opposite end. The proposal is still in the air.).

By Patrick Totty