Mexico-Guatemala The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

January 12, 2008

  Today was market day. It's always an exciting day for me because you can tell so much about a place and the people by the market. When there's pigs heads and grasshoppers all around you know you're with good people. The massive quantity of fruit, veggies, shoes, clothes and illegal DVDs blows the mind. It's hard to imagine all of it being consumed.
  Today was also a test of reality. I've only been here for six days but I feel like I've seen a good bit of the city and feel comfortable with the way things run. However, after being at the market I realized I have been witnessing a filtered city...the city that the tourist industry wants me to see. While standing outside the market today I was soaking it all in and looking around when I witnessed a familiar but always disturbing event. In a split second I saw a young boy around 8 or so zipping up his pants while he exited what appeared to be an ordinary car.  He took off down the dirt road and about two seconds later a very large Mexican male exited the car. The boy was nowhere in site and the man went on his way conducting business with local vendors just outside the market.
  Now for those of you who don't know, I've studied prostitution in the past and visited communities where it thrives (in Cambodia) so I was not surprised by what I saw. However, I was instantly transported back to reality, because for the last six days I’ve been walking around Oaxaca with a feeling of "magic," when in reality Oaxaca is a city just like any other where there is good with the bad. In witnessing the bad you realize that no place is perfect and that when you are traveling you must not have unrealistic expectations. 
  We all must recognize that as visitors to tourist destinations we see what people want us to see and there is a reason why only a handful of tourists visit this particular market and markets like it around the world--they are not instructed by the industry to do so.  But for me visiting the outskirts of town and local institutions provides a glimpse into the life of local people and therefore a greater understanding of the culture I'm visiting that is otherwise unattainable when only following what Lonely Planet dictates.