Most towns in Ecuador (and many Latin American countries) have 1 day/week where the town swells with merchants and shoppers - this is "Market Day" - or "Mercado". This is a high energy time, with lots going on - vegetable and meat shopping, fast food, Ecuadorian style and revelry into the night. The day after isn't quite so pretty!
Here is an 8 photo essay on Mercado in the Ecuadoran town of Otavalo, spring 1996. [note the gold necklaces on many of the women as I mentioned on my last post].
Note: this time of year the weather is almost always overcast, often rainy, which makes for some dark light, especially in covered areas. I was shooting Kodachrome 64 on a simple Nikkormat with manual focus lenses, hand held and no tripod. So, some of these are a bit "soft "- not only from my hand holding each shot, but with some subject movement from the longer exposures.
this is only a snippet of what goes on every week, but hopefully this gives a little flavor of what Mercado is all about - enjoy!
No, nothing like that here. Our powwows are pretty interesting, but nothing on the scale of a good Mercado! Even in the smaller towns, they are the highlight of the week, especially in the mountain communities. Otavalo's was one of the largest, best organized (and cleanest) one I experienced in the 6 months we were in Ecuador (1995-96).
Doug
PS - one oddity I found at the market in our town (Guaranda) was the price of avocados. At the time, the currency was the Sucre (since switched to US dollars). There were a little over 3,000 Sucres to the dollar. Regardless of stall, the price for 1 avocado was 500 Sucres, 2 - 1,000 Sucres and for 3 it was 2,000 Sucres - without fail! Go figure!
