I’ve been here many times now. Each time I visit my friends Ro and Tim, my stay always includes a trip up to the swap meet. It doesn’t take much convincing. They like coming here regularly as well.

How do I describe this place? It’s like the largest garage sale you can imagine on dirt. It’s the state fair of used stuff. I won’t use the word junk because for me it somehow feels disrespectful to the fact that for a lot of these people this weekly gathering on Saturday and Sunday is significant to their income. There are no yuppies selling pottery in this place.

My guess is this meet covers somewhere between two and three city blocks. Many of the vendors have “permanent” structures that they sell out of.

But there are as many that come and put out tables covered with tarps. There is lots of food sold both prepared and unprepared. One of my new favorites is bricks of raw coconut. Salsa, nuts, honey, and vegetables are abundant.

The prepared food is mostly Hispanic but with a couple of Thai places thrown in. And it’s all prepared in the old way with the exception that there are no open fires. Eating is one of the reasons I like to go, and of course the people watching. Both are superb. If we didn’t have somewhere else we were going, I’d still be sitting at this place eating their burros.  Carnitas con papas y frijoles, ummm, ummm, ummm.

If you’re ever in Tucson on the weekend, plan a couple of hours in the morning to experience the swap meet. Almost anyone can tell you how to get there. Oh, and my suggestion would be to arrive hungry.