Baratillo 6/23/07

The easiest way to see Peru in a nutshell, I think, is by going to any outdoor market in Cuzco. There is a giant food market right near where I live in Santiago, which on the weekends extends into a kind of flea market called a “baratillo.” In this market you can find anything you would ever possibly need, granted it might take you hours to find it since the vendors and their things are not organized by any logic. I went to the market this morning just to walk around, but in order to make myself feel like I was doing something else there other than people watching I decided to make it my mission to buy a pen. The first one I found, after 10 minutes, was an American flag pen, and I bought it despite the embarrassing irony. With my American flag pen I wrote this list of some things I saw in the market, in no particular order:

-used school books
-remote controls
-curtains
-blenders
-jewelry
-cell phone covers
-used computer parts
-used clothes
-plastic baby doll heads (I swear, I saw several people with these, the bodies nowhere to be found)
-rusty old tools
-undergarments
-toothpaste and other toiletries
-cigarrettes
-shoe soles
-colored pencil stubs
-doormats
-various crafts
-“chicha” music video DVDs (these are just as funny as chicha music, but I would have to sit down and watch a bunch to be able to describe them well)
-DVD players
-framed pictures of Jesus
-used jars and beer bottles
-used corks and bottle caps
-funnels
-clothes hangers
-chess pieces
-old magazines
-ceramic sinks
-shoelaces
-wooden furniture
-single batteries, unpackaged
-toilet paper
-pirated CDs
-various foods including potatoes, chicha, custard, and ceviche.
-hundreds of people pushing past each other, all seeming to be in a rush to find something or get somewhere.

There is also no rule about specialization. There are some more professional-looking vendors who only sell, for instance, one type of craft (that they probably bought from other artisans), but there are others who might have a variety of things arranged in no particular order: maybe some chess pieces, some used books, some rusty metal tools, some baby doll heads, toilet paper, and a basket of potatoes, for instance. This would not be at all strange. It’s just Peru.