Experience the Magic of Oaxaca, Mexico

Sitting in Oaxaca's historic town square, or zócalo (SO-ka-lo), where time barely seems to penetrate the leafy canopy, it is easy to fall under the spell of a Mexico that is every day more elusive. Without stirring from your bench, you experience the most irresistible of Oaxaca's attractions, the coexistence of ancient traditions with the modern world.

In the zócalo, young professionals with suits and cell phones walk side by side with women in traditional dress who balance baskets of wares on their heads. Tourists of every nationality while away the hours at street-side cafés, sipping mugs of frothy hot chocolate made from an ancient indigenous recipe. Eager venders work the tables, offering everything from one hundred dollar woven rugs to carved toothpicks for a peso.

The state of Oaxaca encompasses seven distinct cultural regions, each with its own languages and customs. In the capital city of Oaxaca de Júarez, the center of trade and government, these diverse traditions merge to create a pageantry of art and culture.

This pageantry is best on display in the zócalo. Here performers from all 17 regions come to proudly exhibit their traditional dress and folkloric dance. Among these is the Danza de la Pluma, Dance of the Feather, from the community of Cuilapam de Guerrero, just outside the capital. These young men wear towering feather headdresses called penachos as they execute athletic leaps and turns in perfect unison. Another standout is the Dance of the Pineapple Flower, from Tuxtepec, in which women in brightly tasseled outfits move gracefully while balancing pineapples on their heads.

A trip to the historic Benito Juárez markets takes you deeper into Oaxaca's cultural riches. From the southwest corner of the zócalo, follow the Calle Flores Magón for two blocks. The market, situated in a warehouse-like structure, takes up an entire square city block and is a city within itself. Leave plenty of time to wander and take in the overwhelming sensory experience.