3 days tour in and around Oaxaca including accommodation.
You will have the chance to visit Monte Alban ruins, "walk on the clouds" along the Northern Sierra foothpats, and visit the Natural Springs of Salina Blanca.

You will be based at the Rancho Buenavista, located only 20 minutes from the city centre of Oaxaca and convenient for visiting the city and the surrounding areas.
Accommodation will be in rustic cabanas (bungalows) with bathroom with hot water. Some of them are ideal for families; they can sleep up to 6 persons and feature kitchen with dining area.
Free transport is provided to the city centre.

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrival in Oaxaca and transfer to Rancho Buena Vista.
Visit to the archaeological area of Monte Alban, the capital of the Zapotecs for over 1000 years. Monte Alban was both an inhabited city and a ceremonial centre, and the well preserved ruins will give you a good idea of the complex original structure of this important pre-columbian city.
After lunch, you will visit some craft villages in the surrounding valleys, where you can see handcraft masters showing their techniques in weaving, green and black pottery, and wood carving and painting.
Dinner back at the Rancho Buena Vista.

Day 2: After breakfast you will leave the ranch for a trekking tour in the Northern Sierra. Here you will understand why the ancient Zapotecs who inhabited these mountain regions called themselved 'the cloud people': this the point where the clouds coming from the Gulf of Mexico meet the high mountains, and wrap the villages with a magical mist.
Hiking at such an altidude is stunning, and along some footpaths you really fell like you are walking on the clouds.
The unique geographical location of the Sierra offers also an incredible variety of ecosystems with different vegetation, birds, butterflies and wild animals, including the tapirs, spider monkeys and jaguars.
You can walk along a few routes, connecting some local communites who take part to an important ecotourism project aimed to the region economic development in a sustainable way and in the respect of the environment.
These villages are called Los Pueblos Mancomunados de la Sierra Norte and share a cultural heritage and organisation based upon the same social principles.
The return to the rancho is scheduled for 6 pm, when you will have some time for relaxing before dinner.

Day 3: After breakfast you will leave the ranch for a trip to the Natural Springs of Salina Blanca.
The name comes from the salted water underground streams which have been running down steep slopes for hundreds of thousands of years forming beautiful salt waterfalls.
You can see these formations of stalagmites and stalactites from the banks of the river Quiechapa, surrounded by the dry tropical forest typical of this area. In the summer the landscape is semi-desert and during the rainfall season the vegetation is lush and green.
The charm of this natural park is due to its wilderness and remoteness from the inhabited areas, and to the spectacular colour contrast between the white of the salt-rock waterfalls and the turquoise of the river. You can have a refreshing deep in the river before returning to Oaxaca in the evening. You can extend your stay at the Rancho and add some extra daily activities, or check the 4 days Oaxaca Adventure package.