So the next day, after wandering around the Old City of Cartagena, we grabbed a taxi, said the word
'mercado’ and the driver knew exactly where to take us. It was about a 20 minute drive. After passing
by some market stalls, we asked to be let off and then timidly wandered down one of the mysterious
alleyways that we were suppose to avoid. After about five minutes, I could not resist the opportunity so
I dragged out my Digital SLR and started to take photos. We received some quizzical looks but mostly it
was curiosity about who we were and what we were doing in the market. We asked some of the
vendors if we could take photos of their stalls and they not only agreed, but they posed for us. I then
showed them their digital image and
they were smiling and thankful. If we
lingered in front of a display a bit too
long, the vendor would offer us a taste
of the plantain or grapes or oranges for
sale. We got lessons in how to prepare
fish:
(#1. Clobber with a club or
machete. #2. Delicately place fish in
even rows on the display cart), and we
also learned the proper etiquette for
brushing flies off the slabs of raw meat
for sale (whisk quickly as customers
approach…or not at all, in order to prove
the freshness of the product).
After we left the food area of the market,
we entered more of the nuts and bolts
area, featuring electronics, hardware,
garments, shoes, CDs, music boxes, knives and …did I mention music? You can test your hearing as
you pass by tiny shops cranking their speakers up to what
seemed to be 200 decibels (125 decibels is the noise level of a
jack-hammer). And then as you amble along, sidestepping the
massive holes and puddles in the concrete and mud sidewalks,
you also need to avoid the hundreds of buses that quickly stop
to let off and pick up passengers, each with an assistant who
yells out the destination of the bus and exhorts passengers to
jump on, fast! And of course, the cacophony and confusion
would not be complete without hundreds of motorcycles and
cars revving their engines and
honking
as
they
wait
impatiently in the gridlocked
traffic, as bold pedestrians