Chilies, and Beans, and Oraciónes

One-stop shopping at a market stall in Marquelia, Guerrero. Here you can buy chilies, wild honey, fresh ginger, an assortment of dried beans, and a wide selection of oraciónes, or ritual prayers. Specifically, an "oración" is an attempt to communicate with God or a saint, and, in most cases, it involves asking for something. Several great oraciones are on the rack shown above. There is, for example, the oracion "de la santa muerte", or the angel of death, and, my favorite, the "milagrosa oracion del sueño negro", or the miraculous prayer of the black dream. [NOTE: After carefully reading the package, it seems that what is being prayed for here is a good night's sleep].

Rolling Fruit

19°48.457'
105°46.583'

Having breakfast in the vibrant center of the Thanh Hoa market and watching the world go by. Scooters, and cars, and honking horns, and little kids running around with their parents chasing them, and lithe ladies balancing baskets of produce on a shouder pole (see Street Vendors), and carts filled with rambutans, lychees, bananas, and small green apples. And this lady with baskets lashed to the back of her bicycle loaded with six different species of fruit. [NOTE: A women sprinkles water from a bottle over her fruit, while another stuffs a bunch of bananas in a blue pastic bag and makes a sale. I feel honored to be a part of this]. 

Tea Lady

This nice lady had a tea stall in the Central Market of Hue, Vietnam (see Hue Market and Commerce). Delicious green tea and very reasonably priced. I wanted to buy the large economy size shown in the foreground, but it wouldn't fit in my pack.