Loving La Vega

There are few things in Latin culture I'm more drawn to than the markets. For many people most, if not all, of their food is purchased in local mercados. I happen to live a short walk from La Vega, which is one of the biggest mercados in Chile. It really is massive, made up of hundreds of vendors selling nearly everything edible you could ever want and expect to find in Chile.

Living in Santiago Centro with Bella Artes, Bellavista and Providencia in walking distance it is easy to forget what the rest of Chile is like. These neighborhoods are full of a smaller population of more modern, cosmopolitan and artsy Chileans. Fortunately all it takes is a 10 minute walk north, past Rio Mapocho to La Vega and the surrounding neighborhood of Patronato to get a glimpse of a more typical Chilean community. It is more gritty, colorful and full of the sketchy character that I am constantly drawn to. It is wildly different from where I grew up in NY to say the least. 

Sitting in the middle of it is La Vega which is certainly the center of life in this barrio. The streets are always packed with trucks, push-carts and mobile vendors transporting seemingly endless supplies of fresh produce. Sidewalks are packed with locals selling anything from used clothes to TV antenas and batteries. And of course pedestrians heading to and from the market are littered throughout the streets and sidewalks.

The first few times visiting La Vega was a little intimidating. I ended up walking around looking at everything for nearly an hour before even purchasing anything. After a couple months of weekly trips I am getting pretty efficient. I can be in and out in twenty minutes and know which vendors have the best and cheapest selections. And cheap it is. Every single time I walk away from this place I have a smile ear to ear and feel as if I just happened to hit a 75% off everything sale. But no, this place is cheap all day, everyday.

This is an example of what $11 of groceries looks like from La Vega.

For whatever reason I really enjoy the lack of order and chaotic nature of places like this. It is messy, smelly (sometimes good, sometimes bad), unruly and a little dangerous. It just feels so authentic. It isn't even uncommon to see cars or motorcycles for some reason navigating these tiny aisles. Everybody is yelling, bargaining, throwing things, running around and keeping the energy level abnormally high. The bottom line is, it is a very interesting place to spend an hour or two wandering around and highly recommend it to anybody visiting Santiago. I plan on doing a more formal photo essay in the future about La Vega, so for now I only have a couple photos I shot this morning while shopping.

Check out an older post about the market in Cusco, Peru here!

Notes from La Paz

Thoughts on Bolivia taken from my notebook. Written while eating at an Indian restaurant in La Paz. It's unedited aside from standard grammar.

"La Paz fascinates me. It is the same concept I have experienced dozens of times all over the world: a city. Many, many people living in the same area. But here it feels so different. It feels crazy, exciting and dangerous. New York never felt so tame. These days, you can walk in plenty of areas of New York while being lost in your head. You can be absolutely clueless of your surroundings, as most New Yorkers seem to be. But here I feel like I need to be awake and aware. Not sure if it's because La Paz is excitingly different or simply new to me.

Either way, there is a level of chaos I find comforting. I tend to dislike police officers more than the average scofflaw on the street. It is liberating to know there is such a lack of order that you can get away with so much without law enforcement even batting an eye. They seem prepared to move for nothing less than a full scale riot, despite their constant presence.

This city has the most intimidating police force I have ever seen. Around nearly every corner is a machine gun or shotgun toting man in a dark, earthy green army suit with the entire hat, boots and sunglasses get-up. They also carry an expression that says "yes I'm corrupt and fire my gun at will." There are also a strangely high number of unmarked randoms walking around in full bullet proof gear. Yes, they are prepared. But for what?

Traffic and pollution in La Paz is insanely high. In the time before my body could adapt to the thick exhaust, smoke and smog filling all main streets I couldn't help but imagine how much this must effect your health after years of inhalation. Poorly maintained, old cars recklessly speeding around, combined with La Paz's position in a valley that doesn't allow car exhaust to properly escape, makes for some horrid air quality.

The pedestrians in La Paz are just as aggressive as the cars. And you have to be to get anywhere. When it's common for drivers to completely ignore red lights, driving lanes and the pedestrians have the right-of-way mentality, you have to be brave. You have to carry the confidence that the driver will eventually stop. Won't he?

It's not uncommon to see groups of old women slowly making their way, lane by lane, across eight lanes of zig-zagging cars. And darting past them is middle aged men in full sprint. On the narrow sidewalks stocky, bull-headed women in traditional garb, trek on with no intention of moving for anybody. They have days of dirt in their sun-pruned faces, silver teeth and a colorful sack on their back filled with salable items, food and maybe even a dead llama fetus (for good luck). Children play real-life games of Frogger with reckless abandon. While tourists simply stand there thinking back on how they thought crossing the street in New York was tough.

As fast and crazy as this city seems to be, there are an excessive number of people who walk obnoxiously slow. Most sidewalks are thin and have tons of people spilling into the streets with traffic whizzing by. And there is always, always somebody clogging up the flow. Walking a block here is work in itself. So much time is spent looking at the ground because it is rarely smooth or stable. There are holes, puddles and eight inch wide cracks between cobblestones. Maintenance, upkeep and order is practically nonexistent. One orange cone may warn of a 30 foot area of wet cement or sketchy, block long construction sites. There  will be little to no sidewalk, dead ends and absolutely no advise on the safest route."

All being said, I think this city is awesome.

View of the Andes off in the distance

Vendor at El Alto Mercado

Street Vendor

Mother and daugthers

More notes to come! And if you missed my first set of notes on Bolivia check them out here.

Mercado Central in Cusco

Much of South America seems to be a land of backwards living and logic. It is a place where milk is kept in the cupboard and doesn't expire for two months. Eggs are kept unrefrigerated next to the cash register and can be purchased individually. Toilet paper is thrown not in the toilet, but in a small garbage next to the toilet. Because apparently they can handle massive turds, but not single-ply toilet tissue. Lawnmowers are minimally used because an old woman with 10-20 sheep comes around and keeps the grass at a perfectly manageable length. Typically, the cheaper the food, the more you get. So anybody who says the US has obnoxiously big portions has never been anywhere in South America. Depending on the city and country, $3 can get you a one pound steak, half a pound of rice, potatoes, salad and vegetables (quality not guaranteed). In the mercados (markets) large chunks of meat, fish and everything else you can imagine, sit out all day being attacked by flies and nibbled on by sneaky stray dogs. Safety and health standards in many aspects of life are largely ignored (dependent upon the area of course). It doesn't matter how many people should fit on a bus, they will fit as many as physically possible. The bus may sag, creak and groan and max out at 50 km/hr and it may even break down. Yet, at $2 for a 5 hour bus ride you really can't complain. One might assume there would be a bathroom on a 24 hour bus ride along dirt roads. But no, not in Bolivia. You'll be lucky if it stops once or twice so you can go on the side of the street. This is South America, and it is awesome, even if sometimes inconvenient.

Mercados are the lifeblood of practically every city and town in most South American countries. They are cheap and offer a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, grains and everything else you can imagine. Sure, the US has markets, but they aren't quite the same and they don't seem to be nearly as popular. The mercado in Cusco was one of the bigger and more interesting ones I have come across. It's broken down into sections for meat, fish, pork, vegetables etc. There are piles of every piece of every regional animal you could imagine from the intestines and testicles to entire heads. The smells may nauseate and the sights may be even worse. Yet, if seeing how locals purchase their food interests you this is a not to be missed experience.

Warning! If butchered animals and their insides aren't something you want to see I suggest not viewing the below images.

Mercado in Cusco

Vendors

Local

Vendor selling fish eggs and garlic

Butcher

Fish Vendor - fish don't need to be on ice in Peru

Local vendor

Fruit

More fruits

Sopas

Most likely what you think they are

Not as happy as the cartoon pig in the background

All sorts of organs

Good for stew?

Rodents