Day 3: Cancun

January 6, 2018

We made our first brief outing into the town by strolling to "Mercado 28", which is mostly a tourist craft market, near our hostel. The stuff really is gorgeous, although its impact is lessened by the knowledge that the same sort of thing is replicated a thousand times over through Mexico and Central America.

As is the custom of the place, each vendor greeted us and tried to interest us in something. Dodie find this very irritating and is not at all responsive. But I felt as a visitor it would be polite to at least acknowledge the greetings. Like Crocodile Dundee in New York, though, it would not be possible to keep this up for long. This is especially so because the vendors do not take a brief greeting as enough. Then it's "Have you seen these tee shirts that change colour?" "Where are you travelling to?" and so forth. With one we took the time to explain that as cyclists we could not carry a bunch of souvenirs, no matter how lovely. With admirable resourcefulness the man replied "Well, would you like something to eat?"

In the end we just could not continue at the market - too exhausting. Maybe later in the day there would be other tourists around to absorb all the attention.

Of course, photos are also limited. Showing enough interest to take a photo would be deadly. But here are a few. The first is from a very elaborate tee shirt (but hey, it does not change colour in the sun!)

We need a nap after this first foray. More later, when hunger will drive us out into the street again.

Well hunger did drive us back out, but only as far as that same corner restaurant. We may have inadvertently discovered a little gem, since their signage says they have been there since 1980, and they advertise themselves as serving traditional Yucatan dishes in a culture they say is worth preserving.

Predictably I, the food conservative, went for the now tried and true poc chuk, while Dodie ventured over to cochinita pibil , which I would take to be pulled pork. Pibil, we read, is traditionally a pit oven, but we expect it is now a casserole.

We are slowly learning about the currency here, coming to understand for example what 200 pesos is in Canadian, and more importantly what it can buy here. We see also that something like that poc chuk is a tremendous bargain, at 100 pesos being the price of five Mars bars, and offering so much in terms of meat, vegetables, fruit, and bread components.

We were surprised to see street vendors enter the restaurant and offer its clients various goods, like necklaces. We wonder if the restaurant just tolerates this, or if there is an arrangement with certain vendors. Either way, one had a very nicely arranged basket of what turned out to be packaged cake like snacks. At first we could not make out just what they were, but on his second pass through we realized that these could be our Mexican anti-bonk "Knoppers". We bought three different ones, at 20 pesos each. We thought 20 to be a bit steep, being about $Can 1.50, but on the other hand, a Snickers at Home Depot back home is $1.59. Later, in the OXXO convenience store, I spotted one of the confections for 10 pesos. However OXXO did not carry the other two types. I was able to find yet another one in the genre, at OXXO, at 15 pesos.

This opened the general question of prices, in the market. At OXXO prices are fixed, so you either buy or not. But in the market, no prices are marked and unless you know what you are doing you are sure to pay too much. But what does "too much" mean? I told Dodie, if you have a price at which the thing is worth it to you, then you will benefit from buying it, and why worry about if it could be cheaper. But Dodie distains that, and would rather not shop or buy at all under those conditions.

There is actually a way to handle this that can make it a little more fun. Determine in advance how much a thing is worth to you. Ask the price - if lower, buy it. If higher, state your maximum. Then it's take it or leave it for the seller, but no need to engage in bargaining. (I just read this to Dodie, and she is still not buying. Tough sell!)

From the restaurant we ranged a little further in the streets of Cancun, though our range is not great, trudging with cane in hand. We came to a medium sized market, called the AKI Super. Inside we noticed many differences from at home, such as more space given to rice, and to stabilized milk cartons. We also saw lots of those styrofoam containers used for take out, so this store was being a bit Costco -like. So far in Cancun we have not encountered a proper market, piled high with fruits and vegetables, so I was forced to photograph the closest thing that AKI had:

Passing back through Mercado 28, it really was getting silly. As we passed each and every stall, the owner would approach us and invite us to look at the goods. Some had two for one promotions, just for us! Amazingly, all spoke very well, and were so cute. But we could not look, or engage in any way, or we surely would have to be rude in the end. This had the unfortunate consequence of no photos of the admittedly beautiful stuff, whose impact is greatest when you are looking at the pattern of a whole wall full. Similarly, when I say the people are cute, or often actually beautiful, I have no photo to back that up.

Not having toured the hotel zone, not having found a real market, not having photographed many locals, we are ready to leave Cancun. Maybe we will do better down the coast or inland. But we are quite enjoying Yucatan anyway, and at 7 a.m. we will be off looking for more.

The restaurant shows its traditional roots with the wall carving

Dodie really liked this pulled pork, and especially the refried beans.

A full, so far unmonkeyed with, poc chuck. Under that central tomato is a very hot sauce! The trimmed up citrus is lime. Under the other tomato is cabbage.

Any Mexican market shot at all needs these dried peppers.

Mexican papayas are always this big or bigger, much unlike the Hawaiian ones. These are no longer a novelty at home, where they are imported from Belize. But at home they taste "waxy".

Cactus - no idea how to prepare these. Tomatillos, below, yes, Dodie used to make relish from these.

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