Apoala is a small Mixtec village of 500 in a beautiful hanging valley about 2.5 hours from Oaxaca.  Hike through the slot canyons and down to the waterfall.  The only accommodations are at the Community Center (3 rooms) where meals are served, and at the Community Cabins (about 10) near the slot canyons.  Pretty hard to reserve ahead of time--just show up and hope the Sierra Club tour hasn't just hit town...  Cabins are clean and have modern bathrooms (minus toilet seats), but can be very cold at night and sometimes the water goes out.  Worth the sometime discomfort to see the valley.

A special hilltop "home" with 12 unique rooms staggered down the hillside.  Meals (breakfast and dinner) are delicious.  Dogs, horses, miniature horses, and cats are all friendly.  A relaxed environment in a noted rug-weaving village about 1/2 hour from Oaxaca.  Well worth a stay!

Hike or bike the trail from the town of Maras down the hill to the salt pans where locals have been "mining" salt for thousands of years.  A salt-water stream emerges from the hillside and flows into hundreds of little pans.  Walk through the pans (a little tricky for those with bad balance), down to the Urubamba River to pick up the highway down the Sacred Valley.  Takes a couple of hours.

Fabulous wildlife in the rainforest.  Saw over 50 species of birds on the ride down the river from Cusco.  Stay at the Manu Wildlife Center--rustic with a touch of luxury.  Candlelit nights, great food, day trips to the macaw clay lick and the ox-box lakes.  Night trip to the tapir lick.