HOLIDAY SPECIAL EVENTS included in your package

LECTURE, DINNER AND CEMETERY TOUR
Wednesday, October 31, 2007, 5:30 pm– 10:00 pm


An unique opportunity to visit the cemetery and participate in the preparation of this great homecoming. This not-to-be-missed event starts with a pre-tour lecture and dinner* at the magnificent chapel of the famed 5 star Hotel Camino Real.

The lecture will be highlighting the significance and mystery of this indigenous celebration before we depart to the Xoxocotlán village cemetery**. Visitors will be given flowers and candles, so they too can participate. Event starts at 5:30 p.m. and the tour returns at 10:00 p.m.

* Buffet dinner. Beverages not included

** Most Day of the Dead photos featured on this site were taken in Xoxocotlán by Miguel Angel Avendaño, Oaxaca, Mexico.

MITLA ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE TOUR and PALAPA LUNCH
Thursday, November 1, 2007, 10:00 am- 3:00 pm

Mitla's ruins, the Zapotec "place of the dead", are famous for the fineness of its many geometric mosaics decorating the palace walls. Mitla is one of the architectural wonders of Mexico. A place of unparalleled beauty, it was neither grandiose nor a might city (as was Monte Albán). There are a group of five palace like structures scattered about and guarded by a fortified stronghold high up on nearby hill. A colonial church was built right into one of the palaces and today during the many fiestas in Oaxaca the present day Zapotecs celebrate native ceremonies side by side with Christian rites.

After our visit to Mitla we will enjoy an afternoon outside the city, under beautiful Oaxacan skies and under a palapa roof where our 'picnic' theme will be the most important foods of the indigenous people of Oaxaca including the traditional foods for the Day of the Dead; a meal of empanadas, quesadillas, tamales and, of course, tortillas de maiz, as well as the famous Oaxacan cheeses.

Other optional tours and excursions available.

LIGHTING THE WAY FOR DEPARTED SOULS: Candles play as vital a role in the lives of Oaxacans as does music. No wedding, funeral or fiesta is complete without them. At this time of the year Viviana is inundated with special requests for decorative candles to adorn altars for Day of The Dead...... [FULL STORY]