A Sunday Stroll Through San Pedro de Pinta

One of the best ways I’ve found to experience a new place is to have complete immersion into the destination. I like to step away from the crowds of tourists into a crowd of locals. Interacting with locals is where I see community, culture, and connection come alive. An opportunity to do this occurred the morning after attending a friend’s wedding. The wedding was held in Monterrey, Mexico and the funny thing about Monterrey is that it is so under-touristed, hardly anyone spoke any English. This was a great challenge for me because I had to dig deep for the two years of Spanish I studied well over a decade ago. This was more refreshing than I thought, as it made me use parts of my brain I haven’t used in a long time. That being said, I wanted a bit more of a challenge and decided to do some exploring with my party.

Right outside of the main city of Monterrey, Mexico, there lies a small town called San Pedro Garza García. Every Sunday, there is a market called San Pedro de Pinta, which is spread across almost 5km of parks and streets. The vendors include a mix of handmade crafts, clothes, jewelry, and a lot of food! It’s great for tourists to get a taste of all of the delicious homemade food like birria tacos and tamales, and to purchase all of your souvenirs. I saw a lot of trinkets, dolls, clothing, and artwork for a fraction of the cost I had seen elsewhere. It’s a fully volunteer-ran event, and each Sunday has a theme, for example, when I went the theme was “Dia de la Bellota” or ‘Acorn Day’. For Acorn Day, there were 10 different organizations there to educate about the value of trees 🙂 I highly recommend visiting this market for anyone traveling to Monterrey, Mexico to enhance your vacation and view into local life.