The Central de Abastos is the largest market in Oaxaca.  It's an endless city of stalls, tents and random stuff.  They sell everything here, I'm sure including some things that shouldn't be sold, and there's very little rhyme or reason or logic to where things are.  You can wander for hours looking for the section with the shoestores or honey vendors or tools or chocolate or hats or pillows or chiles or, worse, the guy with the really high-quality fruit who you bought from last time who's around here somewhere I think wasn't he just right past the rotisserie chicken?

Mostly they sell ordinary stuff, but occasionally you come across something strange, like these small, painted pieces of pasta.  They come in several sizes, and many varieties.  I'm not sure what they're used for, never having seen them outside of Abastos.  Nor am I sure what would possess someone to make these, but that's one of Mexico's many charms.

There are lots of different types of faces painted on these things, including of course lots of religious ones, like Jesus.

I bought a bag of these tiny little ones. I'm not sure what to do with them, but I couldn't resist.

Oaxaca is famous for chapulines, which is a type of grasshopper, that all the natives eat. I tried a very small one. It was salty and crunchy. I don't have the courage to try the larger ones, which look a little too much like what they are to me.



Here's some more photos of the different stuff I found for sale in the market: