Panglao Market

The Panglao Market is a large concrete platform covered with a sheet metal roof and open at the sides. It sits inside a large courtyard created by a row of shops that lines the streets on three sides of the market. Usually, the courtyard is mostly empty, but at Fiesta Time (the Fiesta of Saint Augustine is held at the end of July), the courtyard is filled with small booths selling all sorts of things.

Inside the market, individual vendors set up booths to sell their products. We are usually interested in the fresh produce. There are several vendors, and the quality of foods on offer can vary from one to the other. We have bought most of our produce from one vendor, who was away having a baby on the day this photo was taken. She was back at work again on our next visit, two days later.

The vegetables that are generally available include several kinds of cabbage, roma tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, green beans, onions & garlic, cucumbers, chard, both sweet & hot peppers, and, sometimes, jicama. The fruits include banana, mango, pineapple, and a kind of lemon. The lemons are very small, with green skin, orange fruit, and very large seeds. They are also very juicy and not so tart. There are a number of other local fruits that are not familiar, and that we haven't tried yet. Prices are very low, and we have yet to spend more than US$4.00 on produce for two days, usually much less.

The little shops that surround the market sell a wide variety of goods, including hardware, dry goods, canned food, soft drinks, ice cream, and hog and chicken feed. It is surprising how much is available in these little shops.

There is a separate structure for the fresh fish. For several weeks, we didn't realize that there were fish at the market, other than the dried, salted fish that are very popular here. Finally Jim asked if there were fish available anywhere nearby, and found out that the fish market was just a few yards beyond the produce. We still don't know how to identify the various local fish species, and the Visayan names mean nothing to us. We are planning to go to a larger fish market in Cortes with a British marine biologist to learn as much as we can about the fish that are available in the market. But that will be a story for a future Journal.

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