Streets of La Paz.

Life in the streets of La Paz is buzzing. Every day is market day. Mostly certain products are sold in the same street. Easy to compare prices. But strange to see a street with only clothes, or drugstores, or bridal gowns. 

In La Paz you still see many women wearing their native clothes. The wide skirts and shawls of wool (to keep warm!). They carry their babies and goods in colourful blankets on their back. Remember the city is built on rather steep mountain slopes. So no easy place to push a pram.   

This is a "witches" shop. They sell herbs and potions but also lama fetus's  to be burried under the house as an offering to the Pachamama.

The fetus's are hanging in the entrance.

A street completely dedicated to tourists. 

Business is closed.... is it Sunday??

Just a few products to sell.

The public baths are next to the fried chicken.

A lot of traffic in the streets. 

Even in  the middle of a kind of roundabout women sell clothes.

Like in the neighboring street.

Everybody in Latin America loves pork rinds.

And fruits

Want to have your picture taken? These photographers sit here all day waiting for you! A peaceful place compared to the busy streets.

The market in Arequipa

Yes this is a market. It is the San Camilo market of Arequipa in Peru. Being thankful in a market-hall so full of beautiful food is certainly a very good idea.

 In this market you will find cheese..........

fish........

meat..................

entrails................

and lots of fruits .............

But when it comes to potatoes and corn, then markets in Peru are very special. 

If somebody just asks you to buy a kilo of potatoes in Peru, you will be completely lost. There 

are so many different kinds of potatoes - some say more than two or even three thousand varieties - that you have to know beforehand what kind of potatoes you are going to buy. All these potatoes have their own fantastic "earthy" colors.

The Peruvians also grow many varieties of corn. Like black corn and white corn and many other colors in between.

And let’s not forget the Lima beans and last but not least the quinoa  Quinoa is not a grain, but a seed (so no gluten). It is (according to the FAO) a food with “high nutritive value”.  The FAO declared 2013 (yes now) “The international  year of the quinoa”.  So if you want to try… on the internet there are lots of recipes for quinoa.  BBC - Good food   Cooking light  allrecipes.com  vegetarian

In a corner of the market, with very narrow passages is the "witches market". The witches don't like you taking pictures of their stalls. They sell herbs, berries and lots of bottles and packages with healthy and healing products. But also other more "dark" things like dried Lama fetuses.

The Lama fetuses are offered to Pachama to bring a good harvest.