The Palenke

The palenke is the public market. We shop there around 6 AM on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Why that early? The trucks arrive around 5 AM those two mornings carrying beautiful, fresh produce from Baguio and Nueva Vizcaya. If you come much later all the lettuce will be gone and the smells from the wet market (the area where they sell meat) are too strong for my nose.

 One area has a long row of fruit stands. A huge rack of bananas (around 25 or so) costs around 100 pesos (or a little more than two dollars). They are the best bananas I have ever tasted.

 This is our dear friend. She is so honest. If we want to buy grapes and they aren't very good, she will tell us not to buy them. Whenever we ask her to pick out our fruit it is delicious. She and her husband own this stand. She comes to work around 4 am each morning (7 days a week) and stays until 6 pm.

 There are rows and rows of shops that sell all kinds of interesting stuff. I always feel like I'm shopping at dollar stores. Most people can't afford to pay for high quality items. Still it's amazing what fun things you can find at the palenke. This one in Cauayan probably has 1,000 shops in it. It is huge!