Page 108 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2024 LIMA

Mass is still celebrated in the church, but
the monastery has become a revered cultural
center that incorporates room after room of
exhibits focusing on Zapotec and Mixtec his‐
tory, art and culture.
Adjacent to the former monastery (and
considered part of the cultural complex) we
toured a 2.32-acre ethnobotanical garden.
Guide Ernesto de Los Santos, a biologist,
explained that the garden officially debuted
in 1998, but much of what’s growing there
had been transplanted from other locales
and was much, much older. He pointed out
scruffy stalks of maize, the most-produced
crop in the world, and said it grew from seeds
found in nearby caves where humans are
said to have lived 13,000 years ago.
The garden includes 1,000 species of flora;
it has the goal of accumulating 1,300 species,
which would equal about 10 percent of Oax‐
acan vegetation. Way cool. But the thing that
blew me away: Every single rock along gar‐
den pathways is nailed to the ground. De Los
Santos explained that the nails keep the
stones in place and allow rainwater to per‐
colate down to the aquifer.
Among other museums we especially en‐
joyed: The Textile Museum, an eye-popping
feast of colors with a lovely, if pricey, gift
shop. We found that the city’s photographic
museum, named for Mexican photographer
Manuel Alvarez Bravo, is the perfect place
to gather pictorial insights into everyday
lives of Oaxacan families.

The Jardin Etnobotanico de Oaxaca is a tranquil
space that showcases the rich biodiversity of the
region. Visitors learn about plants used by
indigenous communities for food, medicine and
cultural ceremonies – and they learn why
thousands of rocks along garden pathways are
nailed to the ground.

108 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2024