Market Love

I am in love. I am in awe. I am in rapture. And I am so full I might explode. I am in Sucre right now and I got up this morning and decided to explore the city. It is a beautiful place. In the downtown almost all of the buildings are white and colonial style and really gorgeous. I was just wandering around minding my own business looking at the sights when I stumbled upon the local market. Now I have to say something for the markets in Bolivia. They are great in general. They are always in these huge open style concrete structures that have all of these little stales as well as people just laying out their goods on the floor. They are always somewhat haphazard and appear to have been built over a period of time as they meander. They always have an upper floor two that circles the lower floor and the second floor is often mostly comprised of food stands where you can buy complete meals. Well for any foodie ( ie anyone who is as addicted and in love with food as I am: Clare I am thinking of you) I have found the mother land, the mecca! The market here is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is huge and contains anything you could ever want to buy for cheap. There are a ton of meat stands selling every part of any animal you could ever want. There is a whole section devoted to fruit stands where there is every kind of fruit imaginable piled high. It is like and enormous rainbow of deliciousness. There are veggie stands piled a persons height tall with the most beautiful perfect veggies you have ever seen. There are spice stands, and nut stands. There is a whole courtyard that is ringed by stands piled high with amazing fruit selling fruit and veggie shakes. There are potatoes, herbs, flowers, jelly stands. There are stands selling some of the most delicious looking sauces (including hot sauce which is awesome down here). There are bulk stands selling pasta and rice. There are stands piled high with miscellaneous can goods. There are household goods. And the cafeteria area is filled with bubbling pots of the most amazing looking stews and soups and fried meats and veggies. I actually wandered around for about and hour with the biggest smile on my face ever. I think that some day I will move to this town for a while just for the market. I could go there ever day and I would leave every day with a smile on my face. Today I bought a papaya, pineapple and milk fruit shake, a huge slice of pineapple and a delicious empinada for about 70 cents all combined. I am in love. I am in awe. I am in rapture and I am completely full. I have made a point of eating street food while being in South America and it has always paid off. It is the best food you can get for the best price. A complete meal at one of these market stales which includes a huge bowl of soup and a main course costs around 10 bolivianos which is about $1.20. I am not eating anywhere but this market the entire time I am here. I think the hardest thing to moving back to Canada is going to be missing these markets with my entire heart. I dont understand why we dont have these kinds of markets, with fresh farmers goods.