Wandering the Sasquisilí Market

Location
The Markets, Latacunga, Ecuador

Shopping

By Dan Anderson

A throng of Andean people in trucks, riding and leading burros, and even on foot make a once-weekly pilgrimage to Sasquisilí, where every Thursday the largest traditional market in Ecuador springs up. That might not be exactly accurate: there are actually four markets, dozens of streets filled with vendors, and most of the stores are doing booming business too. The indigenous people start arriving before dawn to what has for hundreds of years been a way of life, and that life is unmistakably vibrant and rich: wizened grandparents in traditional dress toting babies in jeans, fishmongers outyelling each other (twenty fish for a dollar!), and haggling, laughing, bartering marketgoers flood the town. The animal market has its share of colourful inhabitants, too. Every kind of domesticated animal is auctioned off, from pigs that weigh more than a tonne to lambs that only halfway reach the knee. There is a seemingly random market, where chickens roam and cuy are kept in covered baskets and bags, beds, bookshelves, and things “saved” from the garbage all crowd the ground in barely ordered groupings. In the massive food market, the smell of cooked traditional foods, including deep-fried cheese, cuy (also known as guinea pigs), and lots of whole pigs drifts over fruits and vegetables of every size, colour and description, and rice and dried beans in bags heavier than many people. Don’t be surprised to see a cube truck, the back open, with a leaning pile filled to the top with oranges that impossibly don’t all roll out in a tidal wave of fruit. The clothes market is full of, well, clothes, and nearby there are more touristy booths with absurdly cheap alpaca wool sweaters, jewellery, handicrafts, and so forth. Don’t miss trying puntas, or trago, a vodka-strength locally brewed drink, and haggle! Haggling is expected, and is a great way to start a conversation with some of the fascinating vendors, if nobody else is eyeing goods.

Open Hours from:Sunrise

Open Hours to:3pm or so