Karen and I decided to do a little more exploring. Below are some of the various pictures taken during the day.
We began our journey at El Arenal Centro Comercial (a very big flea market/farmers' market).
Below: live rabbits for sale
Hand made baskets
Live crabs for sale
All sorts of juices, many from fruits I have never seen or hear of.
Shrimp - about $2.50 per pound
Picture of one of the meat vendors (yes, it just hangs out there raw)
Another picture of the meat market. I love the chicken feet sticking up in the air. I have heard that if you get a chicken foot in your bowl of soup (yes, I have) that it is either good luck or an expression of honor. I need to clarify which.
Vendors shelling peas. All the 'native Americans' or 'indiginous' (I have heard the term 'indian' is not 'politically correct' now) usually are wearing Panama hats as the elderly lady is in the middle of the picture. They also have colorful skirts that are indicative of which part of the country they are from. Most are shorter than 5 feet tall. The native americans come in from the countryside and sell fruits and vegatables at these markets or they put their produce in wheel barrows and sell along the streets of downtown Cuenca.
Large sacks of grains for sale.
After the market, Karen and I went to downtown Cuenca (El Centro) to walk around. This weekend they were celebrating Corpus Chrisit. The video below has one of the street performers playing a 'flute'. He is quite talented. The sound of this instrument is quite distinctive and has a very beautiful almost a 'haunting' sound.
During the celebration of Corpus Chrisit, the streets are lined with vendors selling sweets of all descriptions.
Next, we walked a few blocks to the Flower Market. A dozen roses $2. Notice the native American woman with the Panama hat and colorful dress. A very common site.
Beautiful fresh flowers are very inexpensive here. Karen usually buys some each week to brighten up our apartment. The vendors now recognize Karen when we come and are very animated and helpful. Between our broken Spanish and their broken English, we have developed a nice relationship with these entrepreneurs.
Karen with one of her favorite flower vendors. In the background on the left is one of the 52 Catholic cathedrals in Cuenca. The population is 95% Catholic.
I couldn't resist a picture of these two cute girls at the flower market. The one of the left was adorable, but she 'buttoned' her mouth up when I was taking the picture. Her older friend was very shy and covered her face. The children have the most beautiful brown eyes. They are a joy to see. As the average age of the population in Ecuador is approximately 25 years, there are many young people and children. One can feel the energy exuded from this young population.
Karen and I had heard about the Coopera being a good place to purchase organic produce. So, we decided to find out what our friends were talking about. Because I am not a writer (I am a 'numbers guy') I am going to provide you a link to Access Ecuador where myfriend and Spanish teacher, Deke Castleman, has written an article about his experience there. Deke is a professional writer who moved here from Las Vegas. The link is:
http://www.accessecuador.com/articles/coop
Below is what we actually purchased on our trip. This filled up a shopping basket. As you can see, we also could purchase meats (steak, pork chops, fish), milk, juice. We decided to be brave and purchase a few things we had never tried before. The large green 'bumpy' fruit in the center/back is called guanabana. The juice is delicious and we have it often. The yellow 'bumpy' fruit just behind the cucumbers is Pitahaya. Ben loves to cut one open and eat the sweet fruit. I think Ben is ready to export this back to the US (lol).
As I said, this filled up a basket. Total cost $48.69. A very inexpensive and healthy stock of groceries.
I hope you enjoyed the tour.
Hasta luego!
