Yucatan Week

Last Saturday Alejandro and I went to an event called "Semana Yucatán en México" (Yucatan Week in Mexico City).

It is being held at the Sports Palace from May 8th through May 17th, and brings together 270 vendors selling handicrafts, food and drink from the state of Yucatán.

There was a wide variety of merchandise for sale including hand-made wooden kitchen implements...

bags made from henequen, the fiber from a kind of agave plant...

and Mayan masks.

There were vendors selling traditional embroidered clothing for women.

And for the men, there were several booths selling beautiful guayabera shirts.

Neither Alejandro nor I need more clothes, but we couldn't resist buying a couple of shirts.

One of the main reasons we went to the event was to see if we could find the artisanal brand of Xtabentún that we like.  I have mentioned Xtabentún before.  It's a honey, anise liqueur that is a specialty of Yucatan.  It is hard to find here in Mexico City, but at some stores you can find a commercially produced brand of the liqueur.  Last year Alejandro and I were at a festival featuring products from Yucatan.  There was a guy selling an artisanal brand of the beverage.  We tasted a sample, and we liked it even more than than what you normally see in the stores.  Some months later, I was at a Yucatan fair held at the Museum of Popular Cultures.  The same fellow was there, and I bought another bottle.  Sure enough, he was at this event, and he remembered us.  We bought two bottles, so that we have a good supply to serve when we have visitors at the apartment.

After spending a couple of hours at "Semana Yucatán", we took our new guayaberas and our bottles of Xtabentún and headed home.