What follows is a typical grocery shopping trip for us in Otavalo. We take our backpacks and walk to the market.
On the way, our first stop is at a small shop where we bought a chicken and also buy butter and cream. The chickens and meat actually sit in a refrigerator! Not always the case with meat, as later photos will show.
Going towards the market we walk along this street which has lovely trees and interesting lighting. Each of the lights is different, but in this picture you can only see the one on the top-left with the strange mask.
Against the wall under the umbrellas are the shoe-shine people. To the left of the picture there is someone sitting up on a chair under a red umbrella wearing a green-striped jumper/sweater having his shoes shined.
As well as shops and market stalls, there are many mobile vendors. Wheelbarrows seem to be the vehicle of choice for most.
These 2 Quichua women each have a barrow of mangoes to sell and were walking towards each other when we first saw them, and it looks as though their kids are happy to meet up again.
Generally the vendors sell fruits from their barrows – strawberries, grapes, mangoes, etc.
Having walked a few blocks further, we are now at the Copacabana market (yes, just like the song. And no, I don’t know what that means in Spanish. Google Translate was not helpful in that respect.)
This part of the market has a metal roof, but the rest of the market doesn’t. We buy our potatoes from a lady with a stall in this section. She always throws in a few extra potats for us.
Me trying to work out what to buy. Note the necessary market equipment – backpack, shopping list, coin purse, thoughtful expression.
The pricing “system” for markets in Otavalo doesn’t go by weight. You generally ask “how many (onions, carrots, etc) for 50 cents (or 1 dollar, etc)?”.
At first, I couldn’t keep track of how many of the various things I should get for my dollar, so I decided to write down in a little book what produce I had bought and how many I got for the price. Then next time I went to the market with my shopping list, next to the item I wanted to buy I would write how many I had previously got for the price, so that when I was quoted a price I would have an idea if that was a good deal or not.
We’ve found that you do need to have your wits about you at the market, as if you are unprepared you can get caught out. Example. I wanted to buy some carrots, so I asked one lady “how many carrots for 50 cents”? She said 6. I checked my price list and found that the previous week I had bought 6 carrots for 25 cents. So when I said No, she asked how much I wanted to pay. I said 25 cents, which she accepted without blinking an eye. It doesn’t pay to assume that the quoted price is the best price you can get. Another vendor may also give you a better deal.
Most of the vendors at the market wear the indigenous Quichua clothing.
Yummy!! Strawberries at the front, on the left behind them is a fruit called “mora”. They are somewhat similar to a blackberry but are very tart. Yummy cooked up with some sugar.
To buy one of those grey plastic containers full of mora or strawberries is usually around 1 dollar.
You can buy various grains, flours, pastas, peanuts, beans, etc., here. Also for sale are packets and tins on the wall shelving. We buy our peanuts at one of these stalls – it’s cheaper than the supermarket.
Surprisingly, for some things the supermarket is cheaper than the markets. You just need to keep your eyes open and check prices.
Chicken, anyone? Who needs a refrigerator, anyway?
Brendan said one day he saw a customer pick up a chicken to inspect, dropped it on the ground and then handed it back to the vendor who put it back on the pile. Probably a good idea to wash things you buy at the market!
These chickens get to be in a glass display case. Not refrigerated, though. Maybe refrigeration is over-rated?
Either the potatoes need to be guarded, or the market is a good place to hang out in case of falling chickens!!
Still at the market, and this is where we buy our eggs. You can buy a tray of 30 eggs for between $3.35-$3.80, depending on the size.
We generally only buy a dozen, and the egg people are always amused when I hand over my egg carton (which I got at the supermarket) for them to fill.
If you buy less than a tray of 30 eggs, they just put the eggs in a plastic bag (in the photo above, it looks like that’s what’s happening).
Having had eggs come to grief both in a 30-egg tray, and in a plastic bag, I thought the egg carton was a good investment. And it gives the egg people a little amusement.
To the right of the picture you can see 2 women filling a bucket at a water tap for communal use. Good for washing and freshening the produce.
In the middle of the picture is a man riding a bicycle-powered cart/trolley. You often see them around the markets filled with produce that people have bought, and at times you see people sitting in the front section with their produce, getting a ride home as well.
Cheaper than a taxi, I would imagine.
On the outer edges of the markets are vendors who only have a small amount of produce to sell. I once tried to buy some onions from an older lady, but she only spoke Quichua, so that came to nothing.
Looking back toward the market, as we head for the supermarket with our backpacks loaded with goodies.
Another mobile vendor. I’ve sometimes thought that if you sat in one place long enough, just about everything you could want to buy would go past, sooner or later!
Our last stop just around the corner from the market is the supermarket Santa Maria, where we buy the rest of what we need, then we take a taxi home for $1.
And then this little piggy cried wee wee wee all the way home ....
