Market

I've always been drawn to the markets in all of the developing countries I've been in. There's something more down to earth and organic about buying food or kitchen supplies or anything you might need from a small entrepreneur. The market sprawls out through the streets near the Parque Central. Turning off to the left onto a smaller road south of the park, the booths become more tightly packed. In the wooden structures, merchandise seems to overflow into the streets... candy, bags of chips, notebooks, towels, flourescent plastic strainers, pots and pans, school supplies, soap- all brightly colored. Umbrellas protect wooden tables piled with plantains, tomatoes, carrots, melons, pineapples, green onions and yucca from the rain. Some of the vendors only sell cheese and yogurt in small plastic baggies (farmer cheese for all you Sternbergs out there! Gog would be in heaven :). Others sell small fried pasteles out of large metal buckets, and still others a colorful array of juices in plastic baggies, which people walk away drinking with a straw. You can turn off of this road to the right, into a dark passageway that will take you into the bowels of the market. People squeeze by each other down the stone passageways that run into each other with no clear order. Apparently, the building used to be a huge church- who knew that one day it would hold piles of meat, clothes, shoes and kitchen supplies. Walking through and seeing all of these things definitely triggers my grocery shopping addiction and makes me wish I had my own kitchen. Today I trekked to the market with my new friend Sara from Switzerland. I bought a few pencils for the students at Carita Feliz, a screw to fix my backpack with, a couple of postcards and soap for laundry (which is another story!). When it started to pour, we ducked into a panaderia (bakery) to try out a piece of marble pound cake and an apricot pastry. I hope this gives y'all an idea of the market, because as much as I'd liked to, I probaby won't be taking any pictures in there- I think my looking-like-a-tourist complex is too strong for the market.