Stories by Phil Saviano

Celebrating Day of the Dead in Oaxaca

Roaming the Chocolate Trail in Oaxaca

Swimming with the Spirits in the Yukatan's Secret Cenotes - Splashing around in the underground caves near Cancun that are filled with crystal-clear fresh water.

STORIES BY OTHER WRITERS

How to Fly Mexico's Budget-Friendly Skies, May 7, 2008

"While U.S. airlines have been dropping like flies (or at least grounding their planes and filing for bankruptcy), Mexico's discount airlines have been steadily adding new destinations. Rather than suffering an interminable bus ride, now you can start your vacation in Guadalajara and zip over to Cancún to end it on the beach for about $120. These new airlines crisscross Mexico, landing and taking off from more than 50 cities."

Oaxaca, Where the Cooking's Hot and Cool, October 21, 2004

"It was mid-July in Oaxaca, Mexico, and my spirits were high. How could they not be? The air was refreshingly cool, the mountain view from the kitchen was beautiful, and I'd just prepared the best chocolate dessert I'd ever made. I'd come to Mexico's Etla Valley for a five-day cooking course taught by Susana Trilling, an American chef who's made her base in Oaxaca since 1987."

On Oaxaca Coast, Sea Turtles Rally, October 14, 2004

"Fernando Herrera is 78 years old and a fisherman by trade. He can remember a time in the 1980's when he and other fishermen of Oaxaca hunted the sea turtles that nest here for their skins, killing them with machetes and rifles. Yet he acknowledged tearing up when he arrived at the misty beach on a recent afternoon with his wife and son to witness one of nature's most mysterious and prehistoric rites: thousands of female turtles emerging from the grayish blue water of the Pacific, dragging themselves up beyond the high-tide mark and laying their eggs."

Grasshoppers with Mescal in Oaxaca, September 5, 2004

"Oaxaca is famous as the "land of seven moles" - the complex chili sauce sometimes incorporating chocolate, nuts or toasted seeds and spices that change the flavors and the colors from amarillo (yellow) to negro (black) - and I love them. But there is so much more to the region's food, from the common use of grasshoppers and maguey worms to the fine coffee and chocolate raised in the highlands to the mescal, the smoky cousin of tequila that has vastly improved since I visited a decade ago."

Mexican Mezcal Battles Nasty Firewater Image, August 18, 2004

"Mezcal, the poor cousin of Mexico's national tipple tequila, often comes with a dead worm, or even several dead worms, on the bottom of the bottle. The worms are mostly decorative but also signal that it's not a drink for the fainthearted."

In Oaxaca, a Cook Creates a Stir, August 14, 2002

"The people of this colonial city are particularly opinionated when it comes to mole. With good reason. Mole is as much a part of Oaxacan culture as the architecture of the pre-Columbian hilltop city of Monte Albán. Ancient friezes show people preparing and eating mole, a chili-based dish that is the centerpiece of many a feast."