Mercado Ignacio Ramírez

Just a 3-minute walk from El Jardin, the main plaza of San Miguel de Allende, is the Ignacio Ramirez market. Wander the aisles for vegetables, fruits, flowers and meat, for shoes and keys and assorted other wares. Have a fresh juice. Or an inexpensive lunch. Buy a pinata. Breathe in the smell of the flowers and listen to the voices of the locals bargaining for the fixings for dinner. There is no truer picture of the daily life of this Mexican town. Enjoy the color and the energy and the busy commerce of everyday life. Then wander outside the back entrance and down the stairs to the Artisans’ Market for every kind of local craft, from silver and nickel wares to jewelry, embroidered blouses, carved wooden toys, brass and glass jewelry boxes, paintings on amate bark paper. And the colorful papel picado cut paper banners that make a fiesta so festive. And then pick up a woven plastic market bag to carry it all home in. That’s real shopping San Miguel style.