The Peru circuit (Day 8 - morning) - Cusco, San Pedro Market - The 2nd of May 2013

We drove through one part of the city heading towards San Pedro market and as we were approaching it street vendors and small commercial shops started coming into sight.

We walked around its various sectors, so as to get into the smells, sounds and tastes of Peru, which in a lot of respects turned out to be quite different from the ones we were used to back at home, whether they are in Portugal, France, Martinique or even England, which is where the elements of our group came from.

I must say I was impressed with the wide variety of fruit, some of which I had never heard of, nor ever seen in photographs (jocote, cocona, lucuma, camu camu, chirinoya, to name just a few), as well as the amount of potatoes in varying shape, colour and even characteristics.

The fact that many of the vegetables were already cut up in either chunks or previously cooked to be put direct into soups or mixed with stews and other Peruvian plates.

The breakfast stalls also caught my attention, as I tried to see what exactly the locals were having, once their breakfast very much looked like lunch meals or the type.

We were told the corn husks being sold were to wrap up the well known tamales which are made out of dough (from nixtamalised corn and lard vegetable shortening) having normally  sweet or savoury feelings and steamed until becoming firm.

I was unfortunately not in the position of tasting some of the things Charmely suggested we tried for fear of getting sick again, as I was beginning to feel like throwing up given the powerful smells of some of the cheese varieties.

Similarly to some of the markets we normally come across in African countries there was a whole section dedicated to tailoring, though most of the people working there were dressmakers (whilst in Africa they would most probably be tailors).

... It was quite an interesting experience to start the day ... and although I didn't fully take "advantage" of the visit I did like the bustling atmosphere and the "getting to know" part of it.

(To be continued)