Back to Oaxaca: Sunday Market, Tlacolula

Queso Fresco de Oaxaca on Banana Leaves

Here’s one more market before I go. Sunday morning in Tlacolula, about 18 miles from my home-for-a-month, is the mother of all weekly outdoor markets in the central valleys of Oaxaca. It fills the streets of the center of town, meanders for blocks and blocks in all directions and includes Sunday-only vendors of goods and farm produce as well as the permanent shops behind them. Since it seems, according to guidebooks and expats, to be the most visited, I expected a hoard of tourists and souvenir sellers. But I was wrong and reminded yet again that though Oaxaca City and its satellite villages are known, they aren’t on the heavily-trodden tourist track quite yet, relative to coastal resorts on Mexico’s edges and the famous colonial towns of the highlands north of Mexico City.

Sandy and I rendezvoused again at the bus stop on the northern edge of Centro, then walked about a half mile to the gathering spot for the colectivo taxis that ply the highway to Tlacolula. You don’t have to tell them where you’re heading on Sunday as everyone is heading for the same place.