@ The Juarez Market

We're in the midst of a pretty good run of cruddy weather. Its been four days now of overcast and wind to 25 and 25 mph, no sun soaking, no surf fishing...So there's only one thing to do, road trip. Sunday morning found 5 of us friends at the Juarez Market, this is about genuine as it gets, an immersion course in Mexican culture...and I love it.

Colonia Juarez is on the  other side of town, 1/2 hour of waiting and riding on the bus. The market is only on Sundays and starts pretty early. We take a number two bus, ours didn't look like this but I figured I better throw in a pic of what I think is the coolest bus in Mazatlan, at least the coolest I've ever seen.

We've been to the market many times but we missed it last year, people said it was dangerous. Well, that's pure bunk, what could be dangerous about a few thousand of your neighbors doing their weekly shopping just like us? Here's a pic of our crew, Mike and Kathy from Alaska and Annette from Cranbrook B.C, all grizzled veterans of the Mazatlan life style.

I suppose like public markets all over the world at first it seems awful chaotic to you but there's a certain order to it. All the food is in one area and all the clothes in  another etc etc. If you have the time to look, there's no doubt in my mind that you could find anything, and I mean anything, that you might need. They also say that this is a good place to look for anything you might have lost or misplaced while in Mazatlan.... Here's a pic I took a few years back of MP buying the Jergens Olive Oil soap that she likes, it was 3 bars for 10 peso's, a smokin deal.

So we all break up and go our own ways, the place is so crowded its a given that you're going to lose anybody you're not holding hands with so we agree to meet at Benito Juarez's Statue in an hour and a half. MP and I just aimlessly wander, that's something I'm really good at. She's in need of some new Flip Flops and she finds just what she's looking for. But with only one jillion pairs on display the ones she likes aren't in the right size, bad luck. Me, I'm just on the look out for cool stuff like these babies.

 So its getting on to mid morning and walking through all the food vendors is making me real hungry. We have unlimited choices for tacos and the one that catches my eyes and nose is these guys deep fat frying fresh shrimp. Annette and I sit down and we have about the best shrimp tacos I've ever had, at least ever since the Restaurant El Mi Min was closed.  Two tacos and large very cold glass of Horachada which is a sweetened rice drink for 3 bucks or so.

Mike and Kathy loaded up pretty good, they're furnishing their condo with everything it needs to rent out to other people. Here's our break down, and don't get the notion that I'm a cheap skate but Mazatlan is known for being a good value and its one  of the reasons we love this place. MP likes to sleep in those stretchy polyester/cotton tank tops, 3 for 5 dollars, one watermelon- 80 cents, 6 oranges-80 cents, clothes pins-5 cents a piece, jelly donut-50 cents. Here's a couple pics of the food vendors, you can see prices displayed on the veggies boxes, spuds for 6 peso's a kilo which is 50 cents, that comes to about 25 cents a pound..

Our friend Rick Bucyk swears that those are the best clams he's ever eaten. They and the oysters are about the only thing in Mazatlan that I don't trust. I'm sure they're perfectly fine and fresh for sure but for some odd reason they're never refrigerated. On Isla Piedra you see oysters just stacked on the counter all day waiting to be eaten raw...but not by me. And this roasted pig must be a big seller. By the time we walked by at 11 a.m. it was all gone except the apple.

We got home in time to see the Sea Hawks crash. I don't know about you guys but the entire weekend didn't work out so good for the teams I like. The Bronc's gone, The Pack gone....If I see Tom Brady win another Super Bowl I might just barf, but if they're not there then  Baltimore is and...well....I got an idea, maybe I'll just go fishing and miss the game this year.

I hope you liked the  short tour to the Mercado. Its overcast again today so who knows where we'll end up. Maybe we'll just go aimlessly wander, I'll let you know, I'm good at that...