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| Above: Incredible 'Maya' faces and colours are almost everywhere you look Below: Beautiful handmade rugs |
Markets are, by their very nature, chaotic places. Try to imagine what it is like in a little coastal town in Mexico! It's not only an even bigger chaos, but also a colourful and noisy one. La Penita almost bursts at it's seams on market day. An experience not to be missed and unlike anything else I've seen on markets around the world. It's so vibrant that at times it's hard to keep up. Everywhere you look are Mexicans selling beautiful crafts, fabrics, clothes and lots of food!
Not just at the market stalls but absolutely everywhere you go, people carrying all kinds of goods will do their utmost best to vend them to you. Beautiful things like colourful toys, amazing Mayan style rugs and fabrics, food, toys and handcrafted woodworks. It's all so beautifully made that it's hard not to come home with a ton of goods you never planned on buying :-) Being on a motorcycle has it's advantages, as we're well aware of our limited storage space! Not that this deters the salesmen and woman from trying, and they are good at it!
What struck me at this particular market, was that the people selling were all Mexican while the buyers were virtually all gringos. The market in La Penita is apparently very much for the snowbirds from the USA and Canada. That doesn't mean the atmosphere or the goods for sale are any less though. The other thing I noticed were the faces of the stallholders, which are very different from the ones we've seen along the coast. Beautiful faces with very strong expressions. Much more Maya style. We hadn't expected that in Mexico at all. They come from the mountains and the things they make are just beautiful. Jeanette had bought a couple of little items before, made from thousands of little coloured beads. Being able to see and experience this is what I love so much about travelling. The different cultures. The beautiful people. The amazing landscapes. The world is out there and Mexico is absolutely a wonderful part of it.
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