Cultural Activities
Arcos includes cultural activities in your study abroad program price! These are typically during the afternoons. Our carefully crafted cultural activities can include cooking classes, dance classes, city tours, and museum visits. You will find your confirmed cultural activities in the Google Program Calendar that you are shared on 2 weeks before your program start date. Below is a list of possible cultural activities for your program:
Welcome Tour & Program Orientation
A chance to explore the historical center and get your bearings ready to make the most out of your stay in Oaxaca. This tour will not only introduce you to some of Oaxaca City’s most important sites such as the zócalo and Santo Domingo, it will also make sure you know where to find WiFi cafes and places to buy school supplies. You will also receive your program orientation to answer all of your questions about academics, health and safety, host families, communication, and activities.
Art Gallery Tour
Besides the Museum of Contemporary Art there are almost 100 galleries and museums around town. New exhibits open weekly and we will select a few of the best, most interesting, and varied to expose you to this rich cultural side of Oaxaca.
Jalatlaco Neighborhood Walking Tour
Jalatlaco Neighborhood Walking Tour - Enjoy a walk around this old and colorful neighborhood (Barrio) with cobbled streets, murals and lovely cafes inside beautiful colonial buildings.
Xochimilco Neighborhood Walking Tour
Xochimilco Neighborhood Walking Tour
Santo Domingo & Museum de Las Culturas
Visit the most beautiful of Oaxaca’s churches! The church was built between the years of 1570 and 1608 and artisans from all over colonial Mexico were brought to Oaxaca to help in its construction. The inside of the church is a dazzling array of baroque ornamentation and gilded ceilings. Housed next to the church, in what used to be a monastery, is the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures. Here you will find the extraordinary treasures from the tombs of Monte Albán and other archeological sites, such as jewelry, bone, and clay artifacts. Behind the church is the tranquil ethnobotanical garden full of plants endemic to Oaxaca.
Printmaking Workshop
Mexico has the oldest printmaking tradition in Latin America and today Oaxaca is a mecca for this art form. Learn the woodcut technique where you create an image or design on a wood plate with carving tools and then apply ink to transfer your unique creation to paper.
Bowling Night
Bowling Night
Traditional Cooking Class
A great opportunity to take home some of the flavors of Oaxaca to share with friends and family. Oaxaca is famous for its unique dishes. At the top of this list are the moles. There are at least eight basic varieties of mole made in the region. These include: negro (black), amarillo (yellow), coloradito (reddish), almendrado (almonds), verde (green), rojo (red), manchamanteles (tablecloth stainer) and chichilo negro. Some of these moles have more than 20 ingredients! Other typical dishes are tamales, tlayudas, entomatadas and empanadas de mole amarillo.
Latin Dance Class (Salsa, Merengue & Cumbia)
Get some exercise and learn some new dance moves! You'll learn the steps to salsa, merengue and cumbia.
Alebrije Painting Workshop
They were first created in Mexico City by Pedro Linares in the 1940s, after suffering from a bout of high fever spells, he began carving and painting fantasy creatures and the results were his famous Alebrijes. You will visit the Jimenez workshop and museum! This is the most important workshop in the town of Arrazola, where the wood alebrijes have originated and is one of the largest producers of this beautiful work of art. In the town of Arrazola the Alebrijes producers' goal is to create sustainable forests of Copal the tree they use to secure their livelihood as artisans of this rare craft in the future. Not only will you see how these wonderful works of art are created, but you will also have the opportunity to paint your very own alebrije. This is a hands-on experience into the fantasy world of the Alebrijes.
Movie Night
Movie Night
Museum Visits
Oaxaca City's wide array of museums have fascinating fixed and temporary exhibitions to discover more about Mexico’s rich traditions and history. Museum visits could include anything from textiles and stamps to pre-Hispanic art.
Farewell Lunch
The end of this life changing experience will be marked by a farewell event bringing together all of the students to celebrate and say their goodbyes.
Guelaguetza Folk Dance Celebration (July)
Guelaguetza comes from the Zapotec word meaning “offering” and reciprocal giving between people and communities, which is the foundation of traditional Oaxacan society. It was the term used to describe the ceremony and celebration held each year to honor the gods in return for sufficient rain and a bountiful harvest. Today the Guelaguetza celebration takes place every July in and around Oaxaca. Beautifully costumed dancers from the seven regions of Oaxaca State perform elaborate dances handed down from generations past. Before the festivities begin, the delegations make colorful processions around the streets of Oaxaca. One of the most famous dances, the Zapotec Feather Dance, is a passionate and symbolic reenactment of the Spanish conquest of Mexico.
Custom ProgramS - Additional CULTURAL ACTIVITY Options
San Agustin Etla Art Center & Paper Workshop Visit
Visit CASA an amazing art school and exhibition space housed in a 1883 textile factory which has been lovingly restored with some modern touches. Just next door is a handmade paper workshop founded by the Oaxacan artist Francisco Toledo. You can watch how paper is made from different types of pulp and see how it is turned into notebooks, jewelry, and even shirts!