Cuzco Market

We chose to start our last full day in Cuzco by completing our trio of market visits with a visit to the local Cuzco market. This market, like the one in Chinchero, caters much more to locals than it does to tourists. Unlike Chinchero, the market in Cuzco revolves around food and groceries instead of homemade textiles.

Upon entering the market through the northwest corner, we were greeted by a few densely packed rows of machine made hats, scarves and blankets before we emerged to row upon row of food. A few steps in we encountered 2 entire rows full of women with blenders. When we stopped to gawk at the potential deliciousness we were beckoned over by one of the women who had 2 empty stools in front of her stall.

I chose to have orange juice with mango for 4 soles, and Ryan chose orange juice with Papaya for 3.50 soles. Juice lady explained all of the medicinal uses of the different fruits to us, while her small son clung to her waist. When we asked her about the star fruit in particular (apparently it helps with breathing), she offered to put some in our juice for free. She piled it in the blender, along with orange juice, and in my case an entire mango, or in the case of Ryan half a papaya.

She may look friendly here, but do not be mistaken. Juice lady will return with a vengeance in a later post.

While we sat and enjoyed our juice juice lady gave us a local newspaper to read, where we encountered an article detailing more flooding in the area surrounding Machu Picchu. More homes were lost and more people had died. It was definitely a good idea to not try to get to Machu Picchu via Santa Teresa, because even if we had made it there then we would have been stranded.

After finishing the delicious juice we decided to explore the rest of the market. After picking up a few souvenirs we made it to the back of the market, where we encountered another row of women. This time they were selling coffee with milk and different types of breakfast sandwiches. We picked up 2 cafe con leches for 1.50 soles each, and 2 pan con huevos for 1 sole each. They were delicious, although cafe con leche lady was significantly less friendly than juice lady.

Cafe con Leche Lady. Notice that small glass pitcher filled with something that looks like balsamic vinegar? It is actually filled with a super concentrated coffee that you add to the hot milk to mix the cafe con leche to your personal taste.

On our way out of the market we stopped by the cheese area where we picked up some delicious queso fresco for our picnic lunch. And then we encountered heaven. An entire row of basket upon basket filled with different shapes and types of bread. We picked up our staple of small round breads that we had enjoyed several times on the trip. While placing our breads in the bag, the woman helping us happened to drop one on the floor. She picked it up and put it aside, although both Ryan and I were sure that as soon as we left she placed it right back with the others.