Mexico Guide
Oaxaca
The Mixteca
The two areas of Oaxaca's Mixteca region – the barren hills of the Mixteca Baja and the mountainous, pine-clad Mixteca Alta – are not obvious tourist destinations: the pre-Hispanic sites here are far less spectacular than those in the Central Valleys and there are no artisan centres to compare with Teotitlán or Arrazola. However, the colonial buildings are widely regarded as some of the country's most important, and the low number of visitors means that you are likely to have vast crumbling monasteries and Mixtec ruins to yourself. With restoration work under way since the 1990s, it appears that tourist traffic here is set to increase; ironically, the main appeal of the monasteries is their aching, faded glory and the spine-tingling sense that you're witnessing a scene that has remained relatively unchanged since before Cortés.