OT: Downtown

[labradors]

Probably not what Petula Clark had in mind, but HERE is a slide show of part of the market area of downtown La Ceiba and HERE is a video of one block of one of the non-food parts of the market.

[Mare749]

Oh my, these are great pics, Labs! I really enjoyed getting a glimpse of your world. Is most of the produce local? It all looks so beautiful and fresh. I find it amazing that the meat markets have meat hanging out in the open. The non-food market is also fascinating. Looks much like some other places I've visited. Hope you will post more pics. How about some food vendors?

[cjs]

And, they have to move their carts everyday to this location? The meat surprises me also, Maryann. Interesting.

[Trixxee]

I'd really like some of that fruit for breakfast!

[labradors]

Those are more like booths than carts. They only set up and take down their merchandise every day. In some cases, the booths have shutters, so when they are open, the merchandise is displayed and when they are closed they lock the shutters. Of course, that's just for non-food items. The produce is replaced every day.

Because of they order in which I took the photos, it may appear that the meat is outside, in the street. Even though much of it IS just hanging out in the open, all of the meat photos were INSIDE a building (it's just to the left of the green building you see in the last photo. Even despite the conditions that may appear scary to Americans, this meat is usually better (as well as cheaper) than what the supermarkets sell. For convenience, I do buy SOME meat at the supermarkets, but I DO buy meat from these places, as well - especially what I use for sausage (they'll grind it the way I want it) and for corned beef (since the supermarkets don't usually have brisket).

That last photo, BTW, is a group of women, with baskets in front of them. Those baskets are lined with cloth (like towels or sheets), as you would for a basket of dinner rolls, and inside the cloth are the VERY, VERY, VERY fresh tortillas they made that morning. That is where I buy tortillas (not the commercially made things from the supermarkets). In U.S. terms, they are five cents apiece.

Also, for a point of reference,that building in the last photo is on a corner (to the right of the photo) and, if you turn left at that corner, that is where that last taxi is turning at the end of the video in my other link.

[Trixxee]

Fresh tortillas.............

[DFen911]

Love these pictures! Puts most farmers markets around here to shame.

[Harborwitch]

Great pictures Labs. Everything looks so fresh and nice. The vibrant colors are beautiful!

[Mare749]

Where does the produce come from? Is much of it local?

Five cents for a warm tortilla? Oh, that would be soooo bad for me and so hard to avoid.

[labradors]

The things that grow here (papayas, bananas, mangos, mangosteens, the non-hass avocados, nance, zapote, tomatoes, some of the potatoes, long beans, etc.) are local. Carrots and some potatoes are from Guatemala. I think they get the hass avocados from Mexico. Apples are from either Washington state or Chile, depending upon the time of year.

I'm not sure how these stands get the more remote items, but I think there is some kind of cooperative that imports some of the stuff and sells it to the owners of the stands.