El Mercado

On Saturday, I went with Angelica to the market in Vina. The first thing that is cool about the market is that it lies in a dried up river bed in Vina, so it is basically just a bunch of boxes, tables, and trucks with tarps over them.

Even on a Saturday morning at 10:00am, the market was already bustling with activity. All the farmers were out with their produce, and shoppers were walking around with the bags, filling them up with cheap fruits and vegetables. There were also lots of younger guys offering their service as ayudantes, or helpers to carry around the larger loads for people that needed the help.

The most amazing thing to me were the variety of fruits and vegetables and the prices. Unlinke the United States, there is a tendency here to only consume fruits and vegetables that are in season. This meant that when we got here, there were lots of clementines and oranges at pretty cheap prices, but now they are not even at the market. Lucky for me, we are getting into the season of strawberries and cherries...

As I walked around the market, I was absolutely taken aback by how cheap things were. Strawberries and cherries were about 75 cents a pound, you could get 10 lbs of potatoes for two dollars, a pound of avocadoes for a dollar fifty, bunches of herbs for 25 cents, 7 zucchinis for a dollar, 4 artichokes for a dollar, apples for 50 cents a pound, etc.

With these prices, I am completely astounded that there isn´t more consumption of fruits and vegetables in the Chilean diet. But as Sigrid pointed out, it is much easier to go to the grocery store and get all shopping done, where prices are not nearly as cheap, and it is much easier to just stew up some meat and boil some rice, pasta, or potatoes for most people.