Oaxaca Interwoven:
A Mindful Craft Journey
February 22 - 28, 2026
Join a community of like-minded travelers to visit the Oaxaca Valley region. Explore the intersection of craft, mindfulness, and the beauty of connecting with place through land, food, and profound presence.
Offer yourself the space and time for internal and external creative exploration.
Journey with us as we find movement in making, and stillness in practice.
Experience a way to travel that honors the time it takes to do things deeply.
What to Expect
Mindfulness Practice
Daily mindfulness and meditation practices inspired by the teachings of Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.
Local Artisan Experiences
Excursions to artisan local communities that showcase the lived intersection of craft, culture, and embodied relationship to material and place.
Beautiful Lodging
Eco-friendly lodging that embodies the spirit of connection to land and culture and offers guests opportunities to experience nature through gardens and walking trails.
Small Traveling Community
An intentionally small group (8-person max) to facilitate an intentional community experience as well as a mindful travel experience.
Creative Practice
Opportunities for individual and group creative practice to connect with your artistic spirit.
Slow Travel
A travel experience curated to balance DOing with BEing so that you experience being fully present where your feet are.
Located in the Oaxaca Valley, Mitla is where traditional Zapotec culture and the old ways of Oaxaca survive through history, craft, and the beauty of the Oaxacan countryside.
Trip Overview
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Sunday: Arrival & Welcome
Arrival at Casa Lyobaa (airport pickup available) in the afternoon. We will have a chance to meet each other, explore the grounds of the hotel, and enjoy a first shared dinner to get to know each other. After, we will have an overview of our and an introduction to the core practices and intentions we will be working with during the week. You will have your first invitation to join an evening guided mindfulness practice to help orient you to this new place, our time together, and your core aspiration for what you wish this week to be fore you.
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Monday: Grounding through Pottery
Today will journey to one of Mexico’s oldest and most distinctive pottery communities, San Bartolo Coyotepec. For over 2,500 years, this community has shaped the earth into 'pottery of the night'—black clay vessels that hold stories of ancestry, spirit, and a timeless bond with the land. Pottery will be our portal into a world woven from practicality, history, sustainability, and a profound connection to the land. Without the earth, its devoted stewards, and the spark of imagination, this ancient craft could not exist.
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Tuesday: Connecting to Earth
We will return to San Bartolo Coyotepec today for an engaged experience of working with earthen material and the process to awaken inspiration and a more intimate connection with the world within you. In the afternoon, there will be space and time to relax at the hotel, wander the gardens, and engage in your own craft practice. Additional opportunities for practice including a mindful garden walk will be available. This evening, you may also choose to experience a temazcal ceremony (traditional sauna) built right on the grounds of our hotel with local materials.
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Wednesday: Personal Exploration
At the midpoint, this day is left open for you to explore. An wealth of culture, history and craft exists within walking distance of our hotel. Visit the local ruins interwoven in Mitla, or journey a bit further to the nearby sites like Yagul, Caballito Blanco, and Matatlan where you can spend an afternoon exploring the tombs and tunnels of ancient sites. Or, take a day trip to Oaxaca’s city center with its bustling main square and surrounding shopping and cafes. Or perhaps you choose to enjoy Casa Lyobaa, at the pool or in personal spiritual or creative practice.
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Thursday: Exploring Interconnection
Understanding ourselves as interconnected can be challenging to grasp. However, the exploration of hand-woven textiles offers us a unique way to understand how one individual thread can impact an entire tapestry of life. Today, we will visit Teotitlan Del Valle where we will be introduced to the ways in which natural plants and animals are critical to the creation of the vibrant woven colorwork. We will also explore the kinship between the mindfulness and the art of woven fabric using the sound of clacking looms as a landscape for practice.
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Friday: Interweaving Ourselves
For our final excursion, will continue and expand our textile exploration in Teotitlan del Valle with a greater focus on the weaving process itself. You will have a chance to participate in a workshop to practice the art of weaving yourself, as well time to explore a local market. In the evening, we will intentionally close our time together with a celebratory group dinner followed by closing tea ceremony to reflect on our travels and how we will choose to weave this experience into the fabric of our lives as we transition back home.
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Saturday: Departure
A final morning practice will be offered before your last breakfast and perhaps a walk in the garden before goodbyes and check-out.
Airport shuttle will be available for those who need one or for those who wish to extend their stay in Oaxaca.
Sample Daily Flow
Morning mindfulness practice
Daily breakfast (included) at the hotel
Full or half-day artisan excursion
Lunch (shared or independent depending on day)
Free Time (mindful walks, creative practice, time in nature)
Dinner (shared or independent depending on day)
Evening mindfulness practice
**Please note that the final trip schedule may have some adjustments.
Casa Lyobaa, a sanctuary for travelers in the Oaxaca Valley
We will be staying at the beautiful Casa Lyobaa, a sanctuary for travelers in the Oaxaca Valley. Set on three acres of organic gardens—walking distance from the Mitla ruins—the hotel features a pool, temazcal, palapa, and kitchen & living space. We will be the only guests at the hotel during our trip. The owners of this hotel have demonstrate deep respect and care for relationship to land and local culture. Here is how they describe their space:
Each guest room and suite has been appointed with great care, from the handwoven blankets and rugs from favorite weavers, to local pottery and art. A separate poolside building houses the fully stocked kitchen & living area, where complimentary breakfast is served each morning. The adjacent palapa is an idyllic space to relax, surrounded by bamboo, coffee plants, palms, and ferns. Solar panels provide nearly all electricity. The hotel owners embrace sustainable environmental and ethical labor practices.
Lyobaa is the Zapotec name for Mitla (Mictlán in Nahuatl). It means place of rest. The hotel is approximately 500 meters from the ruins along a road that turns from paved to unpaved about halfway down, and that continues to prehistoric cave paintings about 10 minutes beyond the house. The hotel’s three acres are bound by a small seasonal river, a smaller seasonal stream, and countryside. The gardens include hundreds of native and non-native species—from rare cacti, agaves, and yuccas, to pomegranate, macadamia nut, and orange trees. Bird life is often abundant, including scarlet tanagers, orioles, hummingbirds, and gray-breasted woodpeckers. Trails for hiking run from just outside our gate, and we have a number of other hiking recommendations for the area (many on trails that are mapped).
Wifi is available throughout the hotel and there is reliable cell service. Note that there are also two large, friendly dogs on the grounds.
Oaxacan Cuisine
Food is an important way to experience and be present to place and to understanding the interconnection between culture, land, and spirit.
All breakfasts will be enjoyed together daily at the hotel and will feature homemade granola, fresh hardboiled eggs from the hotel’s chickens, fresh fruit, pan dulce, yogurt, fresh juice, and organic Oaxacan coffee roasted at the house.
We will enjoy 3 dinners togethers, freshly prepared by a local chef at our hotel as well as two lunches during our artisan excursions. For the remaining meals, follow your own tastes by exploring the local restaurants and cafes in Mitla!
Mindfulness & Meditation Practice
Mindfulness meditation is the practice of bringing ourselves home to the the present moment, no matter what we are doing. Throughout this trip, you will have the opportunity to join daily guided practices to help keep us rooted and grounded to heart and to place. These practices will include morning sits, mindful walking in the garden, mindful eating, mindful movement, and opportunities to connect with each other as a group. By integrating mindfulness into our trip, we will help create balance between the busyness and excitement of travel, and our core intention of simply being present to the beauty and wisdom available by being on this land.
In addition to daily practice, you will have a special opportunity to participate in a temazcal ceremony, a traditional sauna that facilitates detoxification and cleansing.
Craft with Heritage
Craft is an extraordinary threshold to deeply experiencing place, land, and culture without the burden and complexity of language. Through the process and material of craft, we are introduced to local plants, animals, and minerals. Through pattern, we begin to understand what is central to culture and life. Through use, we gain insight into what the ritual and flow of life feels like in a place. All of this can be absorbed through our senses as we engage with the deeply rooted heritage of Oaxacan craft.
The Oaxaca Valley region is a haven for those interested making practices, and our trip will focus on textiles and pottery. Indigenous culture and tradition remains present through these artistic mediums, offering us a lens into the meaning of relationship to place. There is a flourishing diversity of unique textile styles including Zapotec deigns that tell stories reflecting through each piece that reflect culture in warp and weft. In addition to a wealth of weaving techniques, the use of natural dyes from local plants, animals and insects including the cochineal known for its vibrant red color are present across this region.
Trip Cost
Standard Double Room
Share a room appointed with 2 double beds with premium mattresses, a desk, handwoven blankets and rugs, closet ceiling fan, and a private bathroom with shower.
$2,495
Double Occupancy
Standard Private Room
Your own private room with premium mattress, a desk, handwoven blankets and rugs, closet ceiling fan, and a private bathroom with shower.
SOLD OUT
Single Occupancy
The Candelabro Suite
A private adobe cottage that faces a small seasonal river. Featuring a large bedroom with king bed, desk, small living area, private patio, and an interior staircase to a rooftop terrace with panoramic views. Learn more about this special room here.
SOLD OUT
Double Occupancy Only
Your Investment
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What's Included
Lodging
6 nights in a sustainable boutique hotel
Most meals
All breakfasts, 3 dinners, and 2 lunches
All Programming
artisan visits & daily contemplative practice
Most In-Country Transport
including airport pickup/drop-off
Translation Services
during all artisan group excursions
Temazcal Ceremony
Traditional sweat lodge experience
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What's NOT Included
Airfare
To and from Oaxaca International Airport
Travel Insurance (strongly encouraged)
To protect your investment from life unexpected life events
Some Food and Beverages
3 lunches and 2 dinners on your own plus any alcoholic beverages
Tips & Gratuities
For artisans, drivers, guides, etc.
Gifts and Souvenirs
Any personal items you may wish to purchase
Meet the Trip Leaders
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The Interwoven Institute Founder & DirectorSarah (she/her, dharma name True Light of Courage) believes in joy as a spiritual pursuit. Sarah is a fiber artist, spiritual ecologist, and Cape Cod native. She has worked globally on the back end of sustainable and ethical fashion production and supply chains on behalf of leading American brands.
For many years, she was based in Africa where she worked directly with artisan cooperatives and textile producers including the management of a handbag production facility in Rwanda on behalf of Kate Spade's On Purpose program. Working side-by-side with global artisans showed her how making things with our hands embodies our innate sense of being interwoven with the world.
Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of Calmer Choice, a mindfulness education profit providing mindfulness education, training, and mentorship to elementary schools and local organizations.
She is a student of countless teachers including Thích Nhat Hanh, Robin Wall Kimmerer, David Abram, Mary Oliver, the Brewster flats, adrienne maree brown, Kate Fletcher, Dr. Larry Ward, her grandmother and aunt (both master knitters), her dog Lari, and all alpacas everywhere. She is an ordained member of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing and holds an M.A. in Nature-Culture Sustainability Studies from the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently, she is the founder and director of The Interwoven Institute. She lives on the ancestral lands of the Wampanoag (Cape Cod, Massachusetts, US) with her partner, her spinning wheel, and all her yarn.
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When Abby was in high school, her closest friends asked, “What do you want to do when you get older?” Her answer was simple: “Make beautiful things.” That intention has been her guiding light ever since.
Raised in the Midwest, her early teachers of beauty were the mountains of Colorado, the Black Hills of South Dakota, the open plains of Wyoming, and a constant pack of animals.
Abby studied Textile & Apparel Design first at The Art Institute of Chicago, completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.
She’s spent the past 13 years in New York City, building a career that has centered on sustainability and circular business models, with a particular focus on cultivating collaboration between designers and highly skilled craftspeople.
Her journey in sustainable fashion has spanned iconic brands and transformative initiatives. Early in her career, Abigail contributed to Kate Spade’s On Purpose program, a corporate social responsibility initiative focused on empowering women artisans in Rwanda—an experience that not only shaped her commitment to ethical production but also led to her meaningful connection with Sarah.
Her introduction to re-commerce came through Eileen Fisher, where she discovered a deep passion for giving garments a second life.
And currently at Coach, she works on Coach (Re)Loved, a circular ecosystem dedicated to refurbishing, reimagining, and recycling pre-loved and damaged products—merging craftsmanship with sustainability.
Her work has taken her around the world—from Rwanda to India, across Asia and North America—collaborating with artisan communities and exploring the intersection of craft, culture, and commerce.
Abby’s personal practice includes Breathwork (as taught by David Elliott), mindfulness inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh, and pottery. She’s deeply curious about how creativity can spark inner transformation, insight, and evolution.
She lives in New York with her husband, stepdaughter, their dog Renny, and cat Violet.
Trip FAQs
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WE ARE UNABLE TO OFFER REFUNDS, although we are happy to transfer your registration to another person if you are able to find one to take your place.
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Whatever your spiritual background, root tradition, or level of practice, you will be welcome here. Practices will be guided and appropriate for the beginner as well as the experienced practitioner.
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You are welcome to extend your time in Mitla or elsewhere in the region; however, you will be responsible for your own arrangements.
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While helpful to know some Spanish, it is not required on this trip as we will offer translation services.
“Speak your truth. Live in your power. Create your life. Never abandon yourself. And when you do abandon yourself, make sure you leave a light on to guide yourself back home.”
~ Maria Sabina Magdalena Garcia