The village market days are as follows. These are when people from surrounding villages
come to sell their goods and you have a wide variety of arts, crafts and
food.
DAY
CITY
Sunday
Tlacolula
Monday
Miahuatlan
Tuesday
Ayoquezco
Wednesday
Etla and Zimatlan
Thursday
Ejutla and Zaachila
Friday
Ocotlan
Saturday
Oaxaca
Oaxaca is known for several certain crafts
and one food staple. Oaxaca is known throughout at least North America
for their brilliant colored wood carvings. These can really range in
quality and in price. As in any item don't purchase the first one that
you see just because you like it. It will pay to shop around because
there is a good selection of these wood statues as well as the other
Oaxacan crafts. Perhaps you will return to the original item but
chances are your interest will be perked by something else if you
continue looking. Oaxaca is also known for their exquisite black
pottery. As with any craft it usually is quite a bit cheaper in its
town of origin. This old adage couldn't be any truer then with this
black Oaxacan pottery.
This pottery is beautiful and it is quite
inexpensive. I purchased a large black pot for only $9 American.
However, in my other travels in other cities in Mexico the prices for
this pottery were marked up over 40 times the Oaxacan value. The last
craft that Oaxaca is known for is its rugs. The food staple that is
synonymous with Oaxaca is the Chapulines, or grasshoppers. More is
written about this delicacy below.
There are many many markets located in the city of Oaxaca but the
largest and most diverse in products is the Mercado de Abastos located
about 8 or 9 blocks southwest of the main zocalo. This may sound like
quite a ways but if you are in reasonable physical shape you should be
able to walk this distance within 15 or 20 minutes. If you walk fast
you can make it in 10 minutes. One hint about getting from one place
to the other in Oaxaca; if you are in a hurry walk on the side of the
streets. Many of the streets are one way and you can avoid the dense
ever present crowds on the sidewalks. This market is located near an
extremely busy intersection near the Ayotac river (which is an
ecological disaster - more about that later!). This crowded
intersection is also needless to say, quite polluted. You are
constantly hit by heavy fumes which are always in the air. At first
glance the market appears to be in a state of chaos. People are
running around wheeling vegetables and other goods, loaded buses are
spewing gasoline fumes everywhere, and there is a general state of
excitement.
Once you actually walk into the market things begin to calm down a
little. Goods are arranged in different stalls. The vegetable and
fruit sections seem to stretch for miles. You could easily spend half
a day in this area, but I only recommend this if you really like
produce. Some of the more exotic selections in this part of the market
were Cherimoyas, Chepote, guanabano, passion fruit, pineapple and
other fruits that I can't remember the names for. One thing that I
should mention is that the pineapples were the best that I have ever
eaten anywhere. They were 10 times more sweet then the sweetest
pineapple that I ever had in the States. Certain stalls would have
several hundred pineapples for sale and you could smell their pungent
odor from several hundred feet away. There are many other sections of
this market. I never found a really fancy section in this market like
I did just north of the zocalo. There weren't any sections devoted
entirely to selling fancy crafts, pottery, or jewelry. However, there
were sections that sold specifically clothes, pinadas, electrical
appliances, small crafts and various other odds and ends.
As far as I can tell I was the only American tourist in the market.
Once you get away from the main zocalo area I noticed that there were
very very few tourists. One note for photographers interested in
photographing the people in Oaxaca; most of the people that live there
will not let you take their picture for free. Most of the Indian
tribes believe that if you take a picture of them, you will capture
their spirit and they will never be free. There are ways around this.
Some will accept a small fee for their picture. Some cameras have lens
that you can hold at a right angle to the person but in actuality are
pointing directly at the person. Lastly, I found that I was successful
in getting pictures by holding the camera at my waist and then walking
up to the person and snapping their picture. It was always quite noisy
in the markets when I did this that they never even heard the faint
click of the camera's shutter.
You MUST bargain in these markets if you want to pay lower prices. I
was even bargaining for fruit. I remember paying only 5 pesos or about
70 American cents for a large pineapple after the price started at 10
pesos.
One cute story happened to a friend of mine in the Mercado de Abastos.
She was walking along minding her business when all of the sudden a
large live turkey being carried by a local got its feet tangled in her
sweater. She didn't notice right away and kept walking. However, she
soon noticed when her sweater was being pulled one way and she was
walking the other way. Bystanders soon rushed in to help remove the
birds feet from her sweater. Eventually they were successful but only
after leaving a good portion of her sweater stuck on the birds feet.
Another market that quickly comes to mind is the Benito Juarez Market.
This much smaller market is located about one block south of the zocalo. This market is composed of a large covered area which covers
many many small stalls selling everything from tequila, black pottery,
leather, and produce. There are many other crafts and stores of
interest located near this market. Outside of this market is the best
place in town to purchase chapilines, otherwise known as grasshoppers.
Chapilines are a Oaxacan specialty and you can order them at most of
the restaurants. You can buy these very small, medium in size or very
large. Usually when you buy these you will not only be purchasing
grasshoppers. Upon closer inspection you will probably see cockroaches
and perhaps a termite or two. Its all protein so these extra insect
don't matter exept possibly to further repulse you from the idea of
eating insects. Actually the grasshoppers are quite tasty, and are
best in a flour tortilla with frijoles (beans), guacamole and a hint
of lime.
Near the above market is the Mercado de Artesanias, a market famous
for its rugs and sarapes. These rugs seemed to me to be average and
just a bit above average quality. I visited a town that produced
exceptional rugs later in my trip but more about that in a bit. This
market not only sold rugs but also the famous Oaxacan carved and
colored wood statues.
If you like to completely immerse yourself in another culture the
Oaxacan markets are for you. Tourists are just about nonexistent and
you get a real feel for these people's daily life.
