Puerto Escondido Food and Craft Markets

Puerto Escondido supports an Ahorrara - an American-style grocery store that sells exotic items like cereal and deli meat, but most locals and tourists favor the Mercado Benito Juarez. Like most Mexican markets, it is one of the social mainstays of the town. A sprawling affair that takes up half of a block, it is most active on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the official "Market Days". On these days, people from the surrounding mountains make their way down to Puerto via the night bus. They bring with them such items as homemade tostadas sweetened with palm fruit, edible flowers from mountain trees, and stacks of beans tied together with palm fronds.

On market days, to navigate around the myriad of blankets with wares is an intoxicating experience. Even on the quieter days, the mercado is alive with movement and color. Vegetable stalls crowd together under low tarps that keep the sun off the produce, yet even in the shade the colors are dazzling: bright greens and reds and yellows piled around each other.

Under the high, corrugated roof are tables laden with local cheeses, fish, poultry, flowers, herbs, seeds, coffee, cactus, and hundreds of other items. Women wander between the stalls and the tables, calling out, "Tamales," or, "Tortillas," which they sell from the buckets balanced upon their heads. Tiny restaurants with four or five tables apiece sell breakfast, lunch, and dinner to hungry patrons. Smells and sounds fill the air, clashing and harmonizing. It is sheer activity.

The colorful Mexican hammock is a favorite to take home and enjoy.