Markets: Ground Zero for Getting to Know a Place

We are fortunate that so many of our trips are actually short-term moves. It allows us to really live in a place and experience much more like a local. But one of the things that we have always found make a new place feel like home can also be replicated on shorter trips - visiting a local market. More on our Lima market experience so far after the jump.

If you read much travel advice, it's not uncommon to hear that visiting a local market is a great thing to do. So this certainly is not a novel idea. But oftentimes, the advice is to go to some fancy, tourist-oriented market. Think Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia or Pike Place Market in Seattle. And places like those are great. You should go there. But it's not the same as going to a truly local market where local people are buying their produce for the week.

The Bioferia in Reducto Park, Miraflores, Lima

In Lima, we have found an organic farmer's market (a bioferia) in a park about four blocks from our apartment. It happens on Saturday mornings. Several vendors set up shop for approximately a full city block just outside the park. There is a wide variety of vegetables. Honey. Cheese, milk, yogurt. Organic cotton clothing. Children's toys. Musical instruments. Eggs. More vegetables. The selection is really nice. And the prices are quite a bit cheaper than in the local supermarkets, even though this stuff is organic and most in the supermarket is not. And while we are there we get to rub shoulders with lots of local people. Our neighborhood is very international, so you hear lots of languages being spoken. But there are plenty of Peruvians here buying for the week as well. You also get to interact with the vendors. If there's something you don't know how to cook, they'll tell you. It's great.

Jana and the LL Scoping out the Market

Going to a market is a great way to see how the locals live. We go to the farmer's market when we are back home, and it is easy to take it for granted. It's normal life for us there, and frankly it's still not a very normal way to shop. It's a luxury with prices to match, to be honest. But as a traveller (and as a local too!) it is a big mistake to take local markets for granted. But you have to convince yourself it's worth the time when there may be a million other classic destinations you want to visit. Market vs. museum vs. historical monument vs. whatever. It's not an easy choice, as visiting a market can take some time. But if you can figure out a way to locate yourself close to a market, it becomes easier to take an hour or so on a weekend morning and just soak in the culture - culture you just don't see in the run-of-the mill supermarkets that are very similar in every major city around the world these days. And you might just sample some great food while you're at it, even if you are not doing any cooking for yourself on a trip. We had this experience is Quito. In Oviedo big time. It's something I will now always try to do unless we are really pressed for time.

The Steam Engine in Reducto Park

And the Dining Car (Not in Service)

A Little Museum in the Park

And as a bonus this time around, the park where the market is located is pretty nice on its own. It is very well manicured. (It's hard to grow grass in a place where it never rains!) There is a train engine and dining car to look at. There is space for the LL to run around. There is even a little children's library with books and puzzles and lots of toddler-sized chairs. There is also a little museum, since this park actually commemorates the Peruvian defense of Miraflores against the Chileans in 1881 during the War of the Pacific. Here are some bonus pictures for those of you who read the blog only to see images, mostly of the LL. :-) And by the way, "bonus" is one of the LL's favorite words right now. She has learned it in the context of "bonus" bedtime songs. "I want my bonus song, Daddy." So here you go.

The LL Ready to go, as Always

And She's Off! Try to Keep Up