Point South Mexico - Real Estate and Lifestyle Magazine

There is no limit to the goods and services you’ll find in the tianguis, even in Ajijic Mx. You can have a key made and purchase padlocks next to a table filled with colourful hair bows and earrings. Want a piece of freshly made pizza, a bouquet of flowers, a replacement blender lid, watch battery or stove part? The tianguis is your place to find it all. .

Need to stock your pantry? Walking through the stall-lined street, you’ll add beans, rice, sugar, toilet paper, unprocessed honey, sugar and cinnamon cookies, hot dogs, tortillas, pork chops, farm fresh yoghurt and cheeses to your shopping bag. Another few steps and you’ll answer the merchants’ chant of “Qué va a llevar?” “What will you take?” when you purchase chicken, fish, candied sweet potatoes, herbal teas, potted plants dozens of fruits and vegetables.

Each weekly Ajijic Mx market features slightly different selections of merchandise. The Wednesday tianguis in Ajijic reflects the number of foreign residents and visitors with a larger number of merchants selling handcrafted arts and crafts, embroidered shirts and high quality sterling silver jewellry, crafted in Mexico’s silver centres and marked with “.925” the symbol that ensures each piece is genuine sterling silver.

Representatives of the Huichol groups who live in isolated mountain areas bring their signature hand-beaded and crafted items for sale in the Wednesday Ajijic Mx, market. You’ll recognize them by their indigenous-style clothing. The men wear white cotton shirts and pants covered with colourful embroidery; the women wear brilliantly coloured long skirts, blouses, and head coverings.

Other vendors sell a variety of hand-made items including copper skillets and cazuelas for stews and pottery bean pots and casseroles.

The Ajijic Chapala Mx,  Monday market has dozens of clothing stalls packed to the tarp-covered rafters with clothing. Some stalls sell only white tube socks, while others display anklets, work and sports socks, and dress stockings, tights and panty hose for every member of the family.

On a recent Monday, four large tables were piled high with a rainbow display of boxer shorts, and another table was lined with a pastel array of baby blankets, sleepers, caps, booties and bibs. There are tables heaped with undies--bras, panties and slips in every shade and shape imaginable. A huge Ajijic Mx stand displays dozens of men’s shirts, ranging from Polo knock offs to sturdy brown cotton for work and shiny print satins and western styles embroidered with roosters, horses or cactus for nights in the plaza.

The used clothing business is big in the Jocotepec and Ajijic Mx tianguis. I spotted my friend Shirley searching through a mound of clothing. When I greeted her, she merrily waved her find of the day (a never-worn Liz Claiborne skirt with the labels still attached. She pointed at our friend Nancy who was flipping through a rack of blouses. “She’s already found two brand new, name brand tops, and she’s not ready to give up yet.”

When I started strolling up the street browsing through more of the stalls, I spotted an elderly man pouring cups of agua fresca (fruit-flavoured cold drinks) from the pottery urns he carried on a neck yoke. When his three customers finished their drinks, they resumed their work of the day, playing lively typical Mexican marimba music for tips collected in a carved gourd.

Don’t miss the weekly Ajijic Mx tianguis. The experience is part shopping, part socializing with your friends and neighbors, and entirely entertaining. Knowing you’re part of a 3,000 year old custom makes the experience one you’ll never forget.