Have you ever been to a market that joins food, wood and sisal aromas? Tonalá, which means "where the sun rises", is the place-to-be if you look for any kind of local handcrafts, typical Mexican "food" (I will explain the term food later on) or decoration for your home. It is a turistic place, but not too much!
Why "food"? Well...Mexico has a wonderful culture and great food. And in my opinion that might be the reason you can find a lot of food options in most of the public places, including streets, parks, malls, etc. The food you can normally find close to a market or church is very diverse. It goes from "churros" (yes, the Spanish ones) to "guasanas" (green beans full of natural folic acid), from "tejuino" (a corn drink made by the Tarahumara and Tepehuán Indians of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. Tejuino is made from corn kernels which are soases, then ground up, boiles and left to ferment naturally with wild yeast) to all kind of natural soda's with all kind of flavours (lemon, strawberry, tamarindo, etc). I will certainly write another piece on the food only, this one was meant to be about the market but I think I got a bit distracted because of the food...
Colourful skulls
Tonalá has the best options of gifts or souvenirs you can find in Guadalajara. The only thing you will need to overcome is the crowd. The market has only a very small path in the middle where the traffic rules for walking tourists and locals are very clear: keep right, don't stop, and if you stop, make yourself as small as possible to let the other's get through. You will find some stands with wooden kitchen equipment, porcelain decorations ítems in all kind of colors, picture frames, candels and a wide variety of blown glass, which is one the specialties of Tonalá. There are fabrics that you can visit where they explain the process and how they colour the glass.
In just a few words...Tonalá is worth the visit, although you should be prepared to be patient and have the ability to deal with a mass of people. But once you get through that, you will find treasures at bargain prices.
