The San Ignacio Market
Two young boys conducted business in front of me at the back of a pickup truck overflowing with hacked open coconuts. One was buying, the other selling, while his father sharpened the blade of the knife he was employing for said hacking. He masterfully hacked off the top, poured the water into a baggie, scooped out the meat, added it to the baggie, and stored it in a cooler where his son retrieved it for customers like myself. I made the mistake of asking for the meat only and ended up with a warm bag of bland white flesh. In hindsight, I should have stuck with one of the watery offerings since it probably would have been more refreshing and possibly more flavorful (I was hoping for something more like the amazing burst of flavor we experienced from a fresh coconut when we were on Hawaii several years ago!) Oh we’ll, it was a $.50 mistake that I’ll recover from in time…
Anyway, the occasion for this exchange was the famous San Ignacio Market, which is open every day, but is REALLY open on Saturdays when hundreds of people flock from the surrounding area to participate in this weekly event.
From the moment we rounded the corner into the town center, we could see that the place was abuzz with activity. More tents than usual lined the streets, boasting wares from clothing to shoes to electronics to tools to food to whatever you can think of.
I was eager to return to a booth we walked past a few days ago where they were squeezing fruit on the spot and selling the juice. I happily parted with $1.25US in exchange for a 1/2 liter bottle of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. Yum!
The market was full of produce stands…
…aspiring street musicians…
…clothing…
…a passionate street preacher…
…fresh spices…
…and lots and lots of people. ‘Twas truly a lively place to be on a Saturday morning in San Ignacio.
And lo and behold, we even happened across a local bookstore on one of the side streets – one of my favorite finds whenever we travel! No local authors of particular interest here, but it was still fun to peruse the shelves.
