My most recent visit to the small Mexican resort town of La Manzanilla coincided with the tail end of the Semana Santa (Easter) Holidays. Predictably the beach was throbbing with activity as many Mexicans - especially from the nearby cities of Guadalajara and Colima – flock to this small resort during this holiday. From my shaded lounge chair, I watched an endless parade of beach vendors walk up and down the beach. Besides the traditional offerings such as hammocks, serapes and trinkets, there were vendors who specialized in tattoos or in mango and pineapple sticks. I got a real kick watching the vendors who were selling peanuts, pepitas (salted pumpkin seeds) and a variety of mixed confections from a small wheelbarrow. I would be remiss not to mention the ice cream vendors – to announce their presence as they stroll on the beach with their portable cart, these vendors usually play two catchy tunes on their tinny loudspeakers, the legendary Alley Cat or Herb Alpert’s Whipped Cream, a tune which became world famous as the Dating Game’s theme song.

Thank God, I didn’t come across any vendors who were asking people if they wanted their picture taken with an iguana. I understand that this is very common on the beach in Puerto Vallarta.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 6:46 am and is filed under Mexico, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.