Animal Highlights of Mexico, Part 2

Despite the wealth of mercados here in México, our non-edible purchases thus far have been quite restrained (if I do say so myself). I continue reminding John how lucky he is to have a wife who is not obsessed with pottery / Dia de los Muertos figurines / vessels made out of copper / traditional silver jewelry, since if I was, our peso outflow would be considerably higher.   That said, the one area in which we both seem to have a weakness is animals.

To that end, I thought I’d share the montage of animal figurines that we’ve acquired over the last couple months (with the bulk being extremely recent acquisitions from yesterday’s Bazaar Sabado down in San Angel).

While others may leave Mexico with pottery and dishes, we will leave with a veritable stable of ceramic/lacquered Mexican animals.

To introduce you to our stable of little friends (from left to right):

1. Ferdinand, the bull. John was drawn to him due to the slightly-crazed look in his piercing yellow eyes. Source: San Angel 
2. Vato, the duck. You can find these peering-over-the-edge-of-the-counter ducks all over the place here, but they tend to be decked out in tacky golden armor. We preferred Vato’s subtle, blue design. Source: San Angel
3. Spidey, the Spiderman bank. I suppose one could argue this is not an “animal” per se, but I feel like half-man/half-animal (or arachnid; whatever, let’s not split hairs people) is a high enough percentage to include him here. This was my big prize for hitting 3 balloons with 3 darts at the fan-favorite Balloon Dart Toss game while slightly-tipsy. Source: Plaza Garibaldi
4. Pooh & Eyeore, also a bank. When we returned to Garibaldi this past Friday night with the parents, we were thrilled to see the Balloon Dart Toss set up once again on the fringes of the plaza. It was hardly a question as to whether I would gamble another $20 pesos on another gem here. Although Marcia & John failed to bring home the bacon, I would say this bank is obviously worth the $60 pesos spent in total among the 3 of us?? Source: Plaza Garibaldi
5. Hop-a-long, the heavily lacquered dead frog playing a guiro. We came across this gem in a mercado in Morelia, where there was a whole band’s worth of instrument-playing frog carcasses. John hoodwinked me by claiming he was buying Hop-a-long as a gift for his mother who “loves frogs”. As soon as Hop-a-long made it back to our apartment, John informed me that there were in fact no plans for Hop-a-long to depart our home. He is now shown off to every visitor with the pride of a new parent. Unlike with babies, however, most visitors recoil in horror upon observing that Hop-a-long was once able to hop on his own volition. Source: Mercado de Dulces, Morelia
6. and 7. and 8.  Jackie, George and Herman, the pigs. We had been eyeing these guys for a few weeks now at gorgeous furniture store Toca Madera, located on the west side of Plaza San Jacinto in San Angel. (address: Plaza San Jacinto #15, phone 55.5616.4748)  Upon our return with my parents yesterday, Marcia revealed that Jackie, George and Herman fit perfectly into her plan to buy a little gift for John. Therefore, he became the proud Papa Pig to these triplets yesterday at about 12:30PM.

We will keep you appraised of any further additions to the Herickhoff Family Farm.