It’s time for the LAST article from this go-round in Mexico City. Before I left for this trip, I asked my friend Melanie (hey girl!) if she had any dark-horse recommendations for off-the-beaten path things that I should do in Mexico City. She told me that when she visited, she had taken a lot of her cues from an Instagram account called @thecuriousmexican. The girl who runs this apparently speaks very highly of a large marketplace called Mercado Jamaica (Jamaica Market). It was supposed to be very authentic, and very out-of-the-way, so when she (Melanie) was in Mexico City, she decided to try visiting it. Apparently when she told the cab driver where she was trying to go, the driver cautioned her that this was a very dangerous area, but she went anyway. Clearly she lived to tell the tale, so I’m following in her footsteps today.
We received no such words of caution when we stepped into our Uber, but we were also two large men. A single white female would need to be careful pretty much anywhere, whereas being male, 6-4, and ~230lb pretty much ends all of my fights before they even start. However, I will admit to a small amount of anxiety about the neighborhood. It was definitely sketchy, but once I threw myself into it, I felt totally fine. All of the interactions I had with people were extremely positive.
Oh, and here’s a picture of a guy standing on a giant wheel, juggling in the middle of the street. This was a very random thing we saw a few blocks away from Mercado Jamaica so I feel like I have to include it here.
So what neighborhood exactly are we talking about that is supposedly so sketchy? I’ll go ahead and just show it to you on the map. It’s called Venustiano Carranza. I wouldn’t be surprised if a Mexico City local reads this and says “THIS AREA ISN’T SKETCHY AT ALL YOU BIG DUMB GRINGO.” Who knows. However bad this area may or may not be, I’m absolutely certain Mexico City has a lot worse to offer. 🤷🏻♂️
We did do some walking around this neighborhood, and there were actually some photogenic little street corners around here, so let me set the scene for you with a few snaps from around this area. The majority of these would be to the north / west of Mercado Jamaica, towards Doctores, which definitely skews less sketchy. Some of the street art in this gallery you may recognize from the last article. This is where those shots were taken. All things considered, I really liked this area! It was gritty, but it felt quite friendly and full of character. I’d love to have a reason to come back here.
Now let’s stop beating around the bush and go into this place! It was a bit hard to get a feel for where this place officially started and ended, because the closer you walk, the more the streets start to be packed with vendors selling this and that, and the more the store fronts all turn into food vendors and small family-run supermarkets. However, you’ll damn-well know it when you actually walk inside this massive building.
So before we get to the pictures of this place, let me give you a little background on Mercado Jamaica. Basically since the fall of the Aztecs, this slice of land has been used on and off for markets of various shapes and sizes. Mercado Jamaica as we know it today was established in 1957, as part of a push to modernize and urbanize the markets of Mexico City. By this point I’m betting that you’ve already wondered what Jamaica has to do with any of this. Well, the name of this place is not a reference to the country of Jamaica. In Spanish, the word jamaica also means the hibiscus flower. You see, the item that Mercado Jamaica is most famous for selling is flowers. Apparently—and I am truly surprised I was able to find this level of granularity in my research—there are 1,150 stands here that sell cut flowers, flower arrangements, etc., and approximately 5,000 different types of flowers and plants available here.
But there is more sold in Mercado Jamaica than just flowers. The rest of the market is divided up according to what is being sold in each respective area, into miniature districts. One section of the market sells only meat. Another sells only produce. Still another focused on party supplies and piñatas. There are other sections as well, but after walking every corridor of this place, I feel like those are the biggest categories of goods sold. Although none of these sections smell as AHH-MAZING as the flower area does, they are all quite interesting. I LOVE these kinds of open-air community markets. These are the most fascinating pieces of every one of their respective societies. From Hanoi to Algiers, to Catania to Palermo, to Istanbul to Dhaka, these things are consistently the highlights of my trips. Street art is a close second!
Okay, enough words. Now pictures.
We stopped for lunch at a sit-down restaurant buried deep in the heart of Mercado Jamaica, but aside from that, the only thing I bought here was a big jug of vanilla. Word to the wise: Mexican vanilla is extremely good, and extremely cheap. In the U.S. this is one of the most expensive cooking ingredients you can have the misfortune of needing, but the jug I bought here cost the equivalent of 1 USD. So this can make a great present for your friend that is really into cooking! 🎁
I’m sorry to say it, but this concludes my series on Mexico City! I can’t overstate how much I loved this city. I plan on coming back. I’ve got a lot more ground to cover in Mexico! But for the time being, it’s time to go home. I’ll leave you with one more song from a great LA-based Mexican-American group.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter was born & raised in Columbus, Ohio, and started this blog when he moved from Boston to Hanoi (Vietnam) in 2014. After years based in Nashville working on his band, The Great Palumbo, he now resides in London, UK.
