From Big Bin to Bazaar....

Yesterdays post was about Home Depot and Wal-Mart....  today is the other end of the spectrum.  A tiangius is translated into English as "a small market, which is installed primarily periodically on the street".  It can also be interpreted to mean flea market.  Here in Lo de Marcos, the tianguis is on Saturday, starting in November.  Each town around us has their own tianguis on their own day of the week...  La Penita's tianguis is on Thursdays, I think San Pancho's is on Tuesdays.

Yesterday we met us with our friend Memo and took the "collectivo" about 10 miles up the road to La Penita...

The collectivo is just a van big enough to haul about 10 people, although they manage to cram in a few more than that.  It's cheaper (25 pesos each to ride from Lo de Marcos to La Penita) than taking a taxi, and the local bus doesn't go there.  You could walk out to the main highway and take a Pacific or Plus bus, but collectivos are the way to go.  As you can see, I'm in the 3rd section back... there is one more row behind me....  and there are a couple of jump seats that fold down if needed.  

La Penita's tianguis is huge...  outdoor stalls run along the both sides of the street for several blocks.  You can find about anything here...  stuff you just can't live without, and stuff you wouldn't even know what to do with...

These ladies have their pastry table set up right outside their bakery.  The lady of the right is swishing a paper "fan" like thing over the cakes to keep the flies off.  Their shop is the pink one... to the right, the purple shop is a farmacia.  They had a table in front with someone giving shots for something... flu?  tetenus?  I don't know...  didn't ask.

This man is doing needlework.  Painting pictures with thread or yarn.  I don't know if these are wall hangings or maybe pillow covers...  he had a large variety to choose from.

Clothing?  Kitchenware?  Shoes?  Electronics?  On and on and on...

We bought a small bedside clock and also 3 wine glasses.... asked for 2, but got a bargain if we bought 3.  After we got home we wished we'd bought 3 more and have a set of six.  I'll have to take a picture of them as they are quite colorful.

On the left is one of the vegetable stands.  There are also folks selling avocados out of a bucket.  There is so much to see and look over.  Foods to eat...  take home or eat there.

The stalls stretch on and on...  As you get to the far end, I noticed that the quality of goods got more like yard sale or flea market things...

Used appliances, shoes, clothing and such.  There were a couple of "hardware" booths, but nothing Bill needed.  One booth even had used motors...  grease and all!

There are even more stalls set up in the plaza.  I liked the colorful umbrellas.  There were several food stalls...  we didn't buy anything even though it all smelled delicious.

Not being much of a shopper and feeling claustrophobic in crowds, we checked it all out, then headed back to the main street to catch the Collectivo back to Lo de Marcos.  One interesting thing... La Penita is in a different time zone than us...  they are 1 hour behind Lo de Marcos.  Even so, we got back home around 1 pm....  in time for Bill to go to our local hardware store and pick up some washers before lunch.  

Quite a contrast between the Big Bin stores and the Tianguis, huh?  That's what makes life so interesting here!

That's All For Today!