Market Day in San Pancho
In the center of San Pancho, just a block off the beach, you will find the Plaza del Sol. It is the central square, surrounded by homes and businesses and the town’s only church. There is a stage, an open air building, a park with benches and shade trees and a basketball court. The space is well used by the community – we saw yoga classes, birthday parties, martial arts demonstrations and concerts. But Tuesday is Market Day, and on Tuesday morning, the community gathers at the plaza to enjoy music, shopping and delicious food.
On Tuesday mornings, Dave and I awoke with purpose. Shopping bag in hand, we set off for the square. We would forego making our breakfast at home, knowing we were in for a treat if we waited.
The Market in San Pancho reflects the community and is quite artisanal, with prices to match. That said, the quality of the products is top-notch. It is a small market, but there is excellent variety with various local food products, spices, teas, lotions, as well as crafts, clothing and jewelry.
Samples were happily given, and we enjoyed trying the different local cheeses and honey and ended up buying some of both.
One of our favourite purchases was from a local farm which supplied bulk organic greens. Everything was the same price so you could put together a mixed bag from the bins of lettuce, herbs, bok choy, kale and a few additional varieties I couldn’t name. Such a range of interesting flavours – pepper and lemon – some earthy, some spicy sweet, some bitter.
In addition to the market stalls, a number of trucks would come in from the surrounding farms, filled with produce. Pineapples, melons, mangos and papayas were plentiful and made great additions to our smoothies and margaritas back at the casita.
For breakfast we would nibble and sample, trying different foods as we walked along. We loved having arrapas and tamales for breakfast! Once we had gathered all of our snacks and purchases, we sat down to enjoy the music. All in all, a morning well spent!
