Shopping at the Bodega supermarket in San Miguel de Allende was efficient but a bit prosaic as an experience. The Tianguis de los Martés–the Tuesday Market–was another matter. Who knew what lay in wait under those hangars?

On the outskirts, vendors tried to keep live chicks from scrambling out of their crates.

Inside, was a glorious mix of the beautiful and the mundane. Tables of pottery, embroidery, baskets, toys, and boomboxes stood side by side, while remote controls and sewing notions were spread out on cloths on the floor.

You could get yourself a new wardrobe, inner and outer.

San Miguel de Allende is in an important agricultural region, and banks of strawberries, piles of limes, and explosions of flowers were testimony to that.

In fact, the display of agricultural wealth was a reminder of the importance of Mexico as a supplier of fruits and vegetables to the U.S. If trade from Mexico were stopped, said NBC News in 2019, the US would run out of avocados in 3 weeks. Even in the pandemic, the food trucks get through, with peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, broccoli, cabbage, onions, lettuce, celery, squash, tomatoes, blackberries, raspberries…

Badmouthing Mexico is sport in some high places but I would call that biting the hand that feeds us.

At the Tuesday Market, there were stalls of prepared food everywhere, with long tables to sit down at.

A quick lunch of a gordita–a cornmeal pocket stuffed with meat, vegetables, cheese, green sauce, chilis, or even something sweet, was just the thing to fuel further shopping.

I wish I had one right now!