Mountains at the Abastos

The Abastos Mercado is the biggest market in the city. It's open 24/7, and while I've never been there after dark, I suspect it's as busy as daylight hours. You can buy anything here. Saturday, Stuart and I went, list in hand. If you don't have a list, you can easily be overwhelmed. Think about going fabric shopping at Mary Jo's without a game plan. It's the same idea, grander scale. Like most big mercados, the Abastos is next to the second class bus station, so the traffic congestion is indescribable. People coming to buy and sell arrive from every direction. Dueling music cd vendors vie for the loudest sound, socks and blankets and plastic bowls and tools of every description clog the streets outside the mercado. Inside, it's quieter but very crowded, and amazingly maze-like. Stuart usually brings his compass, just to keep us from circling in a state of complete confusion. I don't have many pictures, many of the vendors are indigenous people and get very upset when a camera comes out.

We walked a while, and looked before we began purchasing. Vendors of a particular item are grouped together in most mercados, the Abasots is no different. That means that many of the sugar cane vendors are side-by-side. To gringos that might not make sense, but here no one questions the system. The woman in this picture is working on a mountain of sugar cane, cutting it into 6 inch lengths with one swipe of her knife, mid-air. Beside her, a dozen other sugar cane vendors were whacking away at their own mountains.





Dried fish is a big commodity here, too. Many people on the coast of the state make their living fishing. I didn't see the dried shrimp, it apparently has a section isolated from the dried fish vendors. Dried food is an important cooking ingredient simply because so many people have no electricity, and therefore no refrigeration. Of course, in the city it's not a problem because you can shop every day. But, for people in the pueblas, refrieration is a luxury most can't afford. I confess I'm not a big fan of dried fish, it's a little strong tasting for my tongue.
Now here's a food I can never get tired of! Pineapples are cheap as dirt, grown all over the coastal plain and in the fields around Puebla. Multiply the pineapples shown in this picture by 100, and you might have an idea of how many pineapples are for sale in one section of the giant Abastos mercado.


I bought a battery for my watch (the woman put it in for me), a mechanical pencil, some cal for my comal, dried chiles, fresh tomatoes, hand-made sugar, a loaf of bread, and other vegetables. I could have also bought, but didn't, some live chickens/goats/pigs/etc, cloth for curtains, underwear, jeans, shoes, flowers, and meat of any kind. Furniture, pottery, toys, rope, keys, calculators, tourist trinkets, hammocks, sheets...imagine it, and it's probably for sale here! The only thing we didn't buy was our weekly juice oranges, because they're too heavy to walk 12 blocks home with. We bought them at the smaller but closer Juarez mercado.

Visiting the Abastos is not for the faint of heart. It's crowded, noisy, smelly, and slightly claustrophobic in the interior sections. The floor is not level, often holes go unpatched for years. It's dark and dusty. It's also exciting and energizing, and anything your heart desires can be found there, with a little patience and a compass.