on the edge: The Sunday Market

The first time I heard about the weekly Sunday Market in Bucerias, I asked where it was and how to get there. I was told, "Oh, you just drive up the river and you'll see it." I thought that those were pretty strange directions. We have a river that runs through Bucerias, bisecting it into north-south areas. The river is invariably dry with maybe a small rivulet of dirty water running down from the Colonias which have inadequate sewage. So the drill is to get off the highway and drive up the river until you see the tianguis (Market). This Sunday, it wasn't dry; there was a flood of water coming down, so finding a dry parking spot was a little difficult.

The tianguis is on a side street that branches off from the river bed and on most days is indistinguishable from any other street, but on Sunday it's crammed with impromptu booths set up just for the day. The roofs are invariably plastic drop cloths, either the blue or the red kind, set up to give relief from the sun and a shady place to examine the variety of goods offered for sale.

First of all there's food. Prices are extremely reasonable and everything is fresh. There are always several booths selling fish and shrimp. Most of the shrimp comes from farther up the coast and is trucked down here. There are many coastal estuaries between here and Mazatlan that are swampy with mangrove forests. These places serve as excellent nurseries for shrimp. The fish comes from our local Bay. The bay is extremely deep and is the wintering place for several species of whales. There is a cold current upwelling outside the bay that brings nutrients up from the depths that supports an intensely prolific food chain. Red Snapper, which are known locally as Huachinango (Pronounced: watch-een-nango) are plentiful and delicious.

There are a number of fruit stands which serve cut up fruit to be consumed at the moment. They also serve agua frescas from big glass barrels which are drinks made from fruit and sugar. The most popular are limonada made from the small key limes, agua de sandia, made from watermelon, agua de melon, made from cantaloupe and agua de jamaica, made from hibiscus flowers steeped in hot water. There are also a number of taco stands with people cooking various food specialties. Tables and chairs are set up on the street so you can choose your favorite food and have a meal. It’s just like being at the mall! Well, not really, there’s a little more atmosphere.

The stalls selling grocery items have an extensive array of bulk items, such as all types of dried beans, dried hibiscus flowers for making drinks and dried corn for making Pozole a hominy based soup. There are also an array of fresh vegetables, particularly the small “Roma” tomatoes that grow locally. They are vine ripened and not at all like those red rocks that are normally found in US supermarkets. They are used as the base for a number of local dishes. The most prevalent is the local “salsa Mexicana”, also called “pico de gallo” (the beak of the rooster) on the east coast. It’s just chopped tomatoes, onion, serano chilies, cilantro and lime juice. You find it in almost every restaurant. Avocadoes are plentiful and cheap, the base for that delicious guacamole.

Have you ever wondered what that CD you bought really cost? CD’s here are 20 pesos apiece (around $1.75US), 3 for 50 pesos (about $4.35US). In Mexico City they were 10 pesos apiece. They are all bootleg of course. You can also find an array of cleaning products. They are all bought by the vendor in bulk and re-packaged for the tianguis.

Another aspect of Mexican culture is that because of the level of income here, everything is used and repaired until it can’t be used anymore. This goes for stoves, cars, bicycles, blenders, etc. So there are several booths which sell an array of stove parts. When the old burners rust just replace them and you have a new stove. Blenders are also well used here because there are so many little restaurants and they are used to make a wide variety of drinks. The motors last a long time, but the blender jars break so you can buy replacement jars, blades, washers, etc. Bikes are the number one form of transportation here. When we were building our house, everyone came by bike except for those who came by bus. On the lot there was a line up of a dozen or so bikes every morning. Even the foreman came by bike. Cars are more expensive here than in the US because of high Mexican government import duties. Also since Mexicans are very family oriented, there is always someone in the family who has a car or truck to be used when necessary so many families forgo the huge expense of a car. At the tianguis, you can get any bike part imaginable. From tires to handle bars, sprockets, wheels, chains, etc.

And of course there’s clothes and footwear. Since sandals and flip-flops are the footwear of choice, there is a large selection cheap footwear, in all colors, designs and sizes. I have seen workers carrying 50 pound white buckets of concrete up ladders wearing only flip-flops on their feet. No heavy work boots with steel toes. There are also regular shoes for sale and booths with clothing for men, women and children. Some booths just specialize in belts and others just hats. The most popular hats among the younger folks are baseball caps that have the logos of the favorite soccer teams. They are really beautiful creations being covered with tags, insignias, stripes, etc. no part of the cap is plain, every square inch has something on it. Of course there’s the ubiquitous vacquero (cowboy) hat, made of straw in the ten gallon hat style.