To Market, We Go

Palmillas Dunes, San Jose del Cabo, Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico.

“To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,” to quote an old nursery rhyme. Today’s markets have everything but a fat pig (at least most of the time). Take the Pop-up Market at Palmilla Dunes, for example. Here you’ll find shoes, jewelry, clothes, plus myriad fresh veggies and other food items. The goal of this market is to bring in unique items that cannot be found at other markets popping up throughout Los Cabos.

Marisol Peña and her husband Edgar have found the perfect niche for marketing their beautiful handcrafted sandals, which are selling like hotcakes. The all-leather shoes are made 90 percent by hand in Aguascalientes and come in about 20 natural and various colorsin most standard sizes for men, women, and children some with exclusive beaded designs by two Huichol families. The indigenous Huichol have a long history of beading, making the beads from clay, shells, corals, and seeds. Today they use brightly colored commercial beads, making the shoes very distinctive. The shoes are comfortable and reasonably priced. Custom designs can be special ordered. But, why wait when you can check out the fine display of shoes stacked in boxes at the market under the name XHANAB-Los Cabos?

Patricia Rivera brings her unique designs from her art and jewelry store called D’Garo in Cabo San Lucas to the Pop-up Market on Friday mornings; she offers handmade necklaces, bracelets and earrings crafted from semiprecious stones, silver from Taxco, sometimes old coins, which gives her jewelry a Mexican touch, and (her favorite) saltwater pearls, each piece one-of-a-kind. Having worked for 17 years in a jewelry store and being an accredited jeweler with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Patty is no stranger to what it takes to create a fine piece that is unique and beautiful. She attends various jewelry trade shows to keep abreast of new designs and materials. She also repairs jewelry and can change the design of an original piece. Drop by and have a chat—she loves to talk.

While roaming the market, you’re bound to get hunger pangs, especially after getting a whiff of the empanadas, pizza, and from the Argentine restaurant Arrabalito. Carola Quintana, whose family own and operates two restaurants in San José del Cabo, set up two handmade tables for those who cannot resist a taste of Argentina. Wooden signs and a chalkboard alert the passersby to what’s cooking. There are three varieties of empanadas, one filled with meat, another with mushrooms and cheese, and the third called Camprese, a take on the tomato, basil and goat cheese salad of the same name. Of course, there is chimichurri to accompany these delights.

The alfajores are to die for, filled with nuts and coated in sugar, a traditional dessert in Argentina. “Argentine food is not as spicy as Mexican dishes and is quite simple. We want the natural flavor of the product to come through” says Carola, who has been selling in the various markets in Los Cabos for many years, and whose life changed when she “got in love” and married her Argentine husband.

The Pop-Up Market is located in the Palmilla Dunes residential development off km 27.5, San José del Cabo. Drop by any Friday 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It’s a great place to meet your neighbors, and then “Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.”

Written by Sandra A. Berry
Photos from Palmilla Dunes