Mercado Merced - the Largest Market in Mexico!

So Lisa, what are we doing today? We're here today at Mercado Merced which is the biggest market in Mexico City. And we just got off the metro and we're still actually in the metro line. It drops you off directly into the market. Exactly, it's right in the middle. Yeah, so look. Check it out. There's the exit to the subway to the metro and right into the market. So this is one of our favorite things to do just meander around the markets. Exactly. Sometimes we buy some fruits and vegetables. Last time just love to look at everything. People watch. Thing watch. How they make the food. Just barter with the people or buy little things. But today we're gonna buy some lunch in here because pretty soon I'm gonna be hungry. Me too. So come meander with us. Let's go. I got this. Everything in here. Want some crocs? Hey! You got them over here. Really? 50 pesos. Where were they when I needed some for the hot dog espresso? $2.80. Yeah. Want some chicken? You can get it here. Oh look, they're having chicken too. So Mexico City's outlawed plastic bags. So here in Merced they're actually selling shopping bags. The far side is the pots and pans of the industrial bags are, huh? I suspect. This is what they used to wrap tamales in. You know, like corn husks. You can buy a whole sheep. What are you doing with these big leaves? Are they construction materials? They are. They're some agave. They're agave leaves. Across this way. Now we're coming to the shoe section. As far as you can see. It's like being in Party City's discount warehouse. Yep. It was nice coming here to the Merced but... But we've been walking for about 10 blocks trying to get out of it. I have to say that it's the never-ending metronome from hell. We're in but we can't get out. We're finding food. We did find some food inside the Merced but the music was so loud it drove us away. Everything was so stimulating. Look, we may have made it out. We're gonna go across the street here. Well no wonder it was so hard getting out of there. That thing was huge. Yeah the Mercado Merced is... I read it was the biggest market in Latin America. I also read they took... it has 5,000 stalls in the place Saint and it's divided into seven sections and there are people now giving four-hour tours of the market itself which which I can which I can understand because once you get in there as you just heard us we couldn't figure out how to get out. Well and part of the problem is that there are all these tianguis along the edges those temporary pop-up markets that sort of seem to keep going on and on for layers and layers and blocks and blocks and so you have to navigate all those to finally get out of there. Yeah I mean what we saw the prices were good however I would actually think twice about actually going back there and looking for anything in particular. It was really too big but it's really interesting Bob. It's really old. It's in the spot where the the Aztec market stood I mean way back. Yeah. A couple thousand years ago. So it's you know at least several hundred years ago and you know before the for the Spaniards came so it's been there for a long long time. In fact it's also sort of a well-known area for prostitution. Yes it is. I forgot to look for those ladies at the night. Of course it was the day. It was the day. And in fact I would never go there at night. No. They say don't go there at night. Gangs hang out there. Yeah but they say the prostitutes are there all all the time principally to service the the truck drivers. That's right. While they're waiting for their trucks to be unloaded. Give them something to do. But we didn't we didn't see any but it's probably a good thing for us. But oh no once again I was super exhausted by the time I came out. I had enough of the of the market. It's certainly a very interesting experience. Highly recommend it. You go in and you really experience your true Mexico there. Yep. So anyhow. Anyhow thanks for joining us at Mercado Merced and may your suitcase always be messy. And don't forget to ring the bell to be notified when we put up more of our videos. Until next time. Hasta luego. Hasta la vista.