Mercado

There are several mercados in the Oaxaca area. This one in Tlacolula is over 600 years old. Its intent is not to cater to tourists, but locals.

January 27, 2019.

I’m really going to miss the mercados here. I can’t think of a real equivalent back in the states. Many mercados are as old as their cities, hundreds of years. On Sundays, the streets are blocked off and vendors set up shop. I suspect there are well-established traditions about where you can locate. If you like warm, loud, crowded chaos, this scene is for you. Dueling accordion and rap recordings, vats of hot bubbling oil, charcoal fired braziers, colorful hand-made crafts, produce, children crawling in the dirt at their parents’ feet, live animals being sold for slaughter, cooks carving off giant slabs of meat, and people pressed together trying to move through it all. When I get back to C-Town someone please yell “Frescas! Veinte pesos!” over and over. Then I may feel like I’m at home.

Bread section. Smells wonderfull, but most all the bread is much sweeter than we care for.
Lots of traditional garb here.
Chapulines are a hot selling item. Who can resist a bag full of spicy grasshoppers?
Just walking past the chilis can make your eyes water.
You can go find fresh flowers…
…or they can come to you.
There are lots of food stands with sodas, fruit-flavored water, and live entertainment.
Fruits and veggies.
Root veggies grow well here. Oaxaca is the home of the pre-Christmas radish festival. Whole nativty scenes (including elephants, of course) are carved from huge radishes.
Air is thick with the smoke of cooking fires.
You’re rarely far from sweet treats in Mexico.
Anything you need.
Have a fruit cup or some juice before you commit to buying.
Loud music, children running, open flames, mezcal… what could possibly go wrong?
The road between Oaxaca and Tlacolula is part of a mezcal route, with several breweries alongside the highway. This vendor has many varieties of mezcal.
No commercial traffic allowed. Especially wheelbarrows. Here vendors set up stands in the middle of intersections. No one obeys the rules.

2 thoughts on “Mercado

    1. Now we will have to come back to Lake Okeechobee just to compare. Rules are for sissies might be the unofficial Mexican motto.

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