The Market

The open-air fish, meat, and produce market in Butuan is very nice. Going to there was like stepping into an episode of Anthony Bourdain's - No Reservations TV show (Travel Channel).  This was one of the highlights of the trip.  Amazing seafood (numerous large tuna and marlon), wonderfully displayed rice by numerous vendors, fruits, veggies, dried fish, pork, chicken, eggs, and so much more.

Dried fish. We have neighbors with a fish pond (mosquito pond) under their house (shack) with a lots of these fish.  They dry them on a shiny piece of galvanized corrogated metal roof sheeting on hot sunny days.

The purple eggs are "salted eggs", already boiled, but should be boiled again at home.

Typical rice vendor, but there were better ones nearby. Some had colorful varieties of rice. I want to try some of the non-white varieties.

These fish vendors wanted me to take their picture raising the sail of this marlon.

One of my favorite drinks is a kind of lemon-lime-aide made from the small "lemoncito".  It's smaller than a Key lime, very tiny. We buy them in bulk, several bags at a time, and keep them in the fridge. We make the lemoncito aide with fresh-squeezed lemoncitos, water, and sugar or honey. My first experience with a lemoncito drink was last year in Cagayan de Oro. I had a sore throat and the wait staff at the hotel restaurant suggested I have lemoncito in hot water with honey. Very effective and tasty. Then I learned it's also a common chilled drink.  Good stuff and something I look forward to with meals.

Buying "lemoncitos" for making lemoncito-aide.

There were also a lot of crafts and vendors of other household items. I want to go back just to catch things I missed and get more photos and video. 

Things are not necessarily cheaper at the market, but they are the freshest.