Mexican Stuff

I like stuff.  When I find some thing I like I find it hard to buy just one, what if I can never find that shirt, bag pair of shoes, tchotchke ever again? It makes sense to at least get two. They totally get that here in Oaxaca and in fact I would say they even market to people with my sort of stuff disorder.

Bags? Yes, please. I won't say how many I have already, suffice it to say I think all of our backpacks may stay behind because we might need to use our new bags as a carry ons to get them back to California.

So far we have owned a pink, blue and red ball. They are very easily popped if your brother and his friend decide to play world cup soccer in the garden. Fortunately there are always more.

As many of you know Harrison is making hammocks. This rope is not for making hammocks, but it is for hanging hammocks. And good rope is just... good.

They even display the produce in a way that makes you feel that buying just one mango would be kind of insulting and frankly not worth the energy.

And the roses. I don't usually buy fresh flowers because I am the sort of person who puts them in a vase and doesn't remember them until they start to smell funky.  Also our cat Oscar used to eat them all, until he passed away. But here in Oaxaca it just seems rude not to buy 2 dozen fragrant, long stemmed roses for $40 pesos (a little less than $4 usd.)

Don't get me started about the plastic. After years of weaning myself off of the stuff, here in Oaxaca it is ubiquitous. We try to avoid it when possible, but there is an undeniable appeal to the stalls filled with the all the brightly colored shapes and sizes in the weekly markets.

Ah, and the cooking utensils. Who wouldn't want a metate or a molcajete? Unfortunately, it is absolutely beyond me to figure out how to get these home... Unless we get a large crate and ship lots of stuff home, in which case I'll take two of everything!

--Natalie