One of my favorite activities to do when traveling is to visit the municipal markets. Not the tourist stands, but rather the place where all the locals go to buy their vegetables, meat, fish, clothes, toiletries and anything else that they might need. The chaos of these spots is unforgettable.
There seems to be little logic to most such markets. The butcher shop is right next to the clothing store which is across from the candy shop. The toy store is next to the jeans stand which abuts on the vegetable stand. Some are a bit more organized than others, with clear sections, but more often than not, you will never know what to expect when you turn the next corner.
As you slowly progress into such a market all your senses will become overwhelmed and the market in Antigua was no exception. First it is all the colors of the various clothes, toys and piñatas that overwhelm your sense of sight. Whether it’s the Abercrombie-Fitch t-shirts, the Gap sweaters, or the multi-colored Crock shoes, it will take a while to get your bearing. Then as you slowly get accustomed to all this color your hearing gets bombarded by songs and fragments of movies being emitted from the stalls where an endless array of ripped CDs and DVDs hang from the rafters like streamers. If you keep going you start to enter the more crowded section of the market. You are being bumped from all sides by the women trying to squeeze through the narrow aisles with their bundles, babies and purchases. At this point you know that you are likely nearing the food section of the market. Your sense of smell gets the biggest shock as you stumble across the butchers section. The smell of all the hanging pork and beef mingles with that of the laid out and quartered chickens and the fresh or slated fish. Thankfully a few aisles down there is the flower section and you can try to recover by breathing in the fresh, perfumed air. Indigenous Maya women sit in corners selling everything from fresh goats cheese wrapped in leaves, gigantic avocados or an endless variety of pre-cooked meals. They chop away at the chickens and divvy up the pork. They offer you a myriad of fresh fruits and invite you into their food stalls.
We tried to eat most of our lunches at the local market. Sitting down in one of the many comodors (eateries), you get to enjoy a delicious meal for the fraction of the price of any restaurant. A mere 15 quetzals would get us a portion of roasted chicken, rice, salad, avocado and tortilla. You could also go for soup, pork or beef, but unfortunately being unable to understand most menu options, we tended to pick the one item we were sure we would enjoy: pollo (chicken). It was always a good deal compared to an average or below-average meal for 75-100 quetzals at a restaurant.
It is a shame that so many tourists tend to be afraid to venture into these markets and even more so avoid eating at them. I cannot imagine that the kitchens of all the fancy restaurants look much different from the ones in these stalls. At least this way you eat what the locals eat instead of ordering lasagnas, schnitzels or cordon-blues.
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