Around the corner from Café La Habana, the Artesanías La Ciudadela market in Mexico City is one of my favorite places to go to browse a variety of handicrafts and folk art from all across Mexico. These traditional hand-made dolls are crafted by the indigenous peoples of central Mexico and are part of Mexico’s heritage.
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Saturdays are a great time to browse Mexico City’s many tianguises, or weekly open-air markets and one of the more interesting and unusual is the Tianguis Cultural del Chopo, or el Chopo. Originally established in 1980 at the Museo Universitario del Chopo, today el Chopo is a popular gathering place among the city’s various youth subcultures. Vendor stalls selling old records, CDs and music memorabilia stretch for several blocks along Calle Aldama and live bands perform on a small stage at the far end of the market.
The Tianguis Cultural del Chopo is open every Saturday from 10:30 AM until around 4 PM. The closest metro station is Buenavista and the Metrobus also passes nearby.
Photo credit: Allie Lefebvre
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Packed food stalls at the Mercado Medellín Christmas night market
One of my favorite things to do during the Christmas season in Mexico City is visit the Christmas night markets. Beginning in early December, the night markets set up along the streets surrounding the neighborhood markets and sell all kinds of Christmas-themed items. You’ll find Christmas trees, piñatas, nativity scenes, ornaments, lights, decorations and traditional holiday food and drink including my personal favorite ponche navideño, a hot fruit punch made from tejocotes (a small golden apple-like fruit that’s indigenous to Mexico). The Christmas night markets stay open late into the evening, usually until around midnight, and the atmosphere is always festive and friendly with Christmas music playing, kids running around and families crowding into the street side food stalls.
There’s a Christmas night market right across the street from our apartment at the Hidalgo Market (Mercado Hidalgo) and we’ve already spent several evenings browsing the stalls while sipping hot ponche navideño and snacking on tamales fritos (fried tamales). It also happens to be where we bought our Christmas tree and all of our Christmas lights and decorations. The Hidalgo night market stretches along calles Dr. Andrade and Dr. Balmis (Eje 2A Sur) on the northwest corner of the Hidalgo Market. If you’re interested in visiting, the trolleybus that runs along Eje 2A Sur coming from Chapultepec stops right in front of the night market and the closest metro station is Obrera. Read more
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The Mercado Medellín, or Medellin Market, is located in Colonia Roma not far from where we live. When we first moved into the neighborhood we would visit fairly regularly and it quickly became one of my favorites. Lately, we’ve been doing most of our shopping at our local market, the Mercado Hidalgo, and it’s been a while since I last visited the Mercado Medellín, although I continue to walk by it several times each week — usually when I’m headed to and from the Metrobus or Parque México.
This past weekend we headed south to visit San Agustín de las Cuevas, one of Mexico City’s Magic Neighborhoods, in the Tlalpan borough of the city. On our way home we stopped in at the Mercado Medellín to pick up a few things, and since we had been out sightseeing all day, I just happened to have my camera! Read more
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We met up with Sara as soon as her flight touched down in the airport and spent the following few days exploring the neighborhoods and touring the markets. One of the highlights was our visit to the market in Xochimilco, one of the city’s best, over Día de Muertos. The market in Xochimilco is enormous. Vendor stands fill two large buildings and overflow out onto the surrounding streets. Since it was Día de Muertos many of the vendors outside were selling orange marigolds, called cempasúchiles in Spanish, and incense. The cempasúchil is the traditional Day of the Dead flower that’s used to decorate the gravesites. Inside the market are a variety of vegetables, chiles, spices, candies and meats all beautifully displayed. Here are a few photos.
Candied pumpkins, or calabazas dulces, for Día de Muertos
Chapulines, or spicy dried grasshoppers Read more
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