To market, to market, to buy a fat (wait, we don't eat a lot of pork....)

From David:

One of the many facets of life here

Local markets

There are two markets that we frequent near our home in Yanahuara – sort of a borough of the city of Arequipa.  One market is small, and is set up in a nearby park on Saturday mornings.  All Organic, we enjoy the opportunity to stock up on Alpaca, ground cherries, apples (Dirty Dozen, ya know), and other produce.

Organic market- you should go early to get the best selection,
but if you go too early, some vendors aren't there.

Vegetable Market

The other market has a Adela at center stage – she’s our veggie queen.  Mostly organic, or near-organic, we only have a few blocks to walk to one of the ‘old school’ markets in town.  Built somewhere around the turn of the century (~1910), the white-stone cavern hosts many vendors of fruits, meats, and veggies – but we’re there to see Adela’s stand – and pick up lettuce (lechuga), tomato (tomato), carrots (zanahoria), pimiento (peppers), papas (potatoes), vaynita (green beans) and the like.  She enjoys a steady stream of customers, and takes pride in the presentation of her products.  As my Spanish improves, I look forward to finding out more about her life.

Adela appears to work 7 days a week and takes a lot of pride
in her veggies.  They are really high quality and delicious.

We also have three grocery stores within walking distance – that’s not typical to have so many options.  These are new concept to Arequipa – with big, wide aisles, shelves full of packaged food, and scan-style cash registers - they feel just like a typical grocery store back in the US.  We use them for non-produce (meat, grains, etc).

To have such a variety of options within walking distance is wonderful.  We find our trips to get food to be fruitful.