Mexico City’s La Lagunilla neighborhood once boasted an actual lagoon used to make deliveries via canoe to a huge street market. The historic area later became notable as the site of an 18th-century tobacco factory and a 1833 cholera epidemic. Today it's home to a legendary Sunday antique market with a jaw-dropping array of treasures and oddities.
All day Sundays vendors fill the streets and alleyways surrounding the permanent market selling furniture, art, clothes, and artifacts you can’t believe still exist in the world. Embrace the crowds and characters and be entertained by strolling musicians as you shop, eat and people watch.
At the heart of the market is a tent city of michelada stands where everyone in the city with a hangover seemed to be partaking in the “hair of the dog” ritual. Giant plastic cups dripping with tamarind syrup, chili lime salt, gummy bears, you name it, are filled to the brim with beer and hot sauce. At some point you’ll need some food to soak up the alcohol and luckily incredible street food stalls operate next to the carnival of beers.
Quesadillas Lagunitas had a long line of customers waiting for their outstanding blue corn masa delicacies, topped with just about anything you could want. As we waited (a long time) for our rajas, mushroom and squash blossom quesadillas, we chatted with a cute couple seated across from us who said they’d been coming nearly every week for 30 years. They assured the food was “vale la pena” (worth the wait). They were not wrong. The icing on the cake as we indulged was being serenaded by a guy who looked like a cuddly version of Jason Mamoa with a boom box and the voice of an angel. Provecho!
DETAILS: Takes place every Sunday: Calle República de Ecuador 39–47, Downtown Mexico City. Tianguis La Lagunilla starts along the inside of Avenida Paseo de la Reforma Chedraui at Avenida Paseo de la Reforma and González Bocanegra is a nearby landmark but any taxi driver will know where you want to go.