Well, since I was in town anyway.....

I decided to walk around the plaza tianguis one more time.
After all it is a great place to find some nicknack's to send up to friends for Christmas presents and have a few stashed away in the closet for when someone comes down for a visit.

There were still quite a few people around yesterday, parking was difficult so instead of driving around looks for a free space I decided to spend 10 pesos an hour for a "bought" space.

I arrived early as some of the vendors were just starting to unwrap their items, so I decided to grab some breakfast at one of the local eateries around the plaza.
Most of them were quite busy which necessitated walking around to find one that would fetch a meal before lunch. I found table outside that appeared to be ready to vacate and perched myself close to it, ready to pounce on it as soon as any movement of the patrons appeared.

Within a few minutes I was comfortably seated ready to order something to eat.

I waited, I played with my electronics distraction device for a few minutes. I watched our local tourist trolley fill up with a few bodies to tour the traffic and downtown streets.

I observed numerous tourists look dismayed that more tables were not available.

I tried to listen in to no avail as a family of local Indians talked amongst themselves, not picking up one single word that I could understand.

After about 15 minutes the waiter appeared and I was lucky enough to get his attention and place my order.

I have noticed that during the busy times of the year, both during the Day of the Dead and Semana Santa, when hordes of people dissent on the town, none of the restaurateurs seem to expand their service staff buy any noticeable margin. All that happens is the services gets really slow to the point of where I see people get up and leave.

You would think that if they were able to turn the tables faster it would more than make up for the additional staffing costs.

But that is not the way of logic here.

My Cafe Americano ( Regular Cup of Coffee) , Fresh Orange Juice and Uchepos arrived. Once the order was placed I was surprised that it arrived fairly fast.

For those of you who do not know what Uchepos are, the are small tamales of corn, which are about 5 inches long, the insides are sweetened corn, topped with fresh crema and Cotija cheese. This is one of my favorite "small" breakfast items that I order when I find them on menus at places.

I enjoy sitting in the plaza watching people ambling around, some faster than others, some with purpose others without destination. I usually get to do that 2 or 3 times a week.

Luckily it is not an expensive proposition. Going to a sidewalk cafe NOB would require quite a stash of reserve funding. Here my small breakfast set me back a whole 65 pesos including the tip. This is equal to about 4 dollars.

This was a tad expensive, only because I had 3 items. Usually I have my fruit plate and coffee at another place which runs me a more affordable 45 pesos with tip or about $3.25.

I imagine the vendors will keep their tables and stalls through this weekend, only to maximize the selling time. In the past few years tourism has been down due to the medias overplaying the "crime" in Mexico. I spoke to a few of the vendors and they all were fairly happy of their business volume this year. Hopefully they will make some more income through the end of the week.....