Shopping at one of the main Super Mercados in Ayacucho is virtually the same as shopping back home. The range is all there, just in a different language! That is no problem because it is quite easy to identify the packets. The only major difference being the prices, it is so cheap.
This morning we shopped for basic breakfast food and ingredients to make a fettuccini carbonara.
In the Super Mercado we purchased such items as bacon, cream, mozzarella cheese, olive oil, breakfast cereal, powdered milk, two packets of pasta, sugar and would you believe two tins of Pringles, what joy! The total at the cash register came to $/-57.00, in Australian terms $21.00. The bacon alone came to $/-15.00!
Just down the road we then shopped at the huge local market for eggs, fruit, vegetables and some herbs. In fact we noticed that we could have bought some of the Super Mercado list there. The grand total being $/-5.00 or $1.85 AUS!
That morning’s work cost us about $/-62.00 or $22.80AUS.
A vast array of freshly butchered meats!
All the fruit and vegetables you could ever eat!
The widest range you could ever imagine of various cheeses and breads.
A full array of salsas, if you are game to try one.
Apart from these two shopping venues you can just about purchase anything in the little shops that line the footpath, stationary, clothing, bedding, plates, pots, pans and the list goes on and on. Even managed to pick up a cork screw, for the life of me I do not why!
And then there are all the footpath vendors endeavouring to make a humble living.
One rather amusing anecdote from today. Each time we head towards the local market we come across a poor blind man begging on a street corner. As I placed a coin into his hand this morning I distinctly heard “gracias padre” – thanks father – so his eyesight was not as bad as I thought!
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