Saturday at the Market

Melody needed to track down a bunch of spa related supplies for her next class if they existed here, so we all headed down to the big market to look for them.  If it exists in Bolivia, its somewhere in the market.  To give you an idea of what the big market is like, picture two superstores each across the street from each other, filled with 10 foot square individual stalls filled from floor to ceiling with whatever they are specializing in.  Then picture the walking space between the aisles at about 2 and a half feet.  There is everything from audio adapters to real ambercrombie and fitch clothes.  There is also a ton of very good knock off items ranging from Prada to Gucci and every trendy brand in between.  Some of them are pretty high quality and can be bought for next to nothing.  Then in the aisles, there are people pushing carts with snacks, drinks or one off items that they try to sell you as you squeeze through.  The one offs tend to be expensive watches (the real deal) at bargain prices for some reason......

We found a stall that sold soccer jerseys and bought each of the kids a soccer uniform (jersey and matching shorts).  Jordan and Logan went for Santa Cruz Oriente (the green Santa Cruz team) favored by Rudy, and Lukas went for the Santa Cruz Blooming (the blue Santa Cruz team) favored by Ken.  Each person in Santa Cruz has their favorite local team and when you think of passionate fans, multiply that by 100 and you are getting close to the way these people love their team and despise the other one.  Grown men regularly cry at soccer games here when their beloved team loses a regular season game.   Anyways, we got all three kids uniforms for 135 Bolivianos which converts to about $19.

There are other parts of the market that I was not so fond of however.  There is an area along the side of the building on the outside, that is the pet market.  Here you find people selling puppies of various kinds and other animals.  Its the other animals I didn't like so much.  The picture below shows two baby parrots for sale in a box.  Normally, these birds are taken from the wild and sold, which doesn't help the wild population and usually results in birds that are either unhealthy physically or mentally.

One other fun treat about shopping here is that your meat is usually very fresh.  You can tell by the heads on the chickens.  Yes, those are indeed chicken heads. Doesn't bother me so much, but its a whole different world here shopping for meat.  You don't go to the market or even the supermarket looking for a cut of meat.  You go in and look at a big section of the animal and ask them to cut whatever you want off of it.  So, in my case, since I know my animals due to my love of cholesterol, its almost a perfect scenario except for the flies.

Tomorrow, we are going to the local church in the morning to experience what a typical church service is like.  There wasn't any church to attend last week due to Carnival, so this is our first opportunity to see how things work.   We are told it is very informal and to dress like its hot, because its going to be.

Everybody is doing well and staying properly hydrated.  Its 33 degrees out at 8 oclock at night right now, and it is only going to go down to 28 overnight.  Some of you might be saying, I wish I could trade you, but believe me, with the humidity to go with it, and the pitiful air conditioning (virtually none), you don't.  Everybody says hi,.