Bazaar del Sabado

Bazaar del Sabado is in San Angel, a small community south of Mexico City. You would never know that there was a bazaar, until you turn off the main road onto cobblestone streets lined with artists and booths. At first glance, it looks like you will never find any place to park, but two out of the three times we have gone, we have parked with the same people for 30 pesos and the other time, we found a spot right on the street for free. The key is to get there fairly early though.

The main square of this little town is filled with artists and all their works. Most of it is paintings, but some have sculptures. It seems that the artists have their spots where they set up shop every week.

There is a main building that actually houses the bazaar. It's an old home that is set up in a square shape. All the vendors are around the outside rooms and there is a nice restaurant in the center. Some of the things you will find inside the bazaar are silk flowers, homemade dresses, jewelry, Tree of Life structures, awesome pottery, marmalade and other treats and other upscale items. This is truly a mecca of art and every vendor has something completely different to sell, which is not usually the case when going to a Mexican market.

The restaurant in the center looks fabulous, although we have never eaten there. Instead, we opt to get the quesadillas that are made in one corner of the courtyard/restaurant. They make the tortillas fresh right on the spot and the quesadillas are made to order. You can order just cheese or get a little more adventurous and get mushroom, chicken, huitlacoche (corn mold), cactus and shrimp, and a few other options. This stand is also where Dave gets his harchata drink that he shares with Claire! You can choose to sit in a small restaurant area to eat these or get them to go.

Behind the building is a large tented area that has many more stalls. Here you will find some of the more traditional items in Mexico - more pottery, jewelry, bead work, clothes, scarves, pewter, and other trinkets. There is also a guy who sells these awesome percussion instruments. There is some duplicating of items in the tented area and also along the streets, but for the most part, this bazaar/market is the best because it is not stall after stall of the same items, just sold by different people. There is just a lot of fantastic art here.

We also discovered this past week that there is a whole second square a block away! More artists and more stalls. You can easily spend three hours here looking at everything.

The area that the bazaar is in also has many stores with more art, furniture, purses, and I even found quilt and yarn stores. The whole area is a great way to spend a Saturday morning. It's calm, inspiring, and cultural.