The Devil's Excrement

One of the most fun things I do when I come to Caracas is to visit the Mercado Libre de Chacao on Sunday mornings. I just love watching the people, looking at the produce and, of course, buying those cheeses that you can only get in Venezuela. (Even if some failry good imitations are now sold abroad)

The market has changed, not only because it moved next door to a more modern building while Leopoldo Lopez was Mayor in 2008, but also because its nature has changed. What originally was created in the 40’s to have farmers from the surrounding areas bring fresh produce to sell directly, has now become a place to find what you can not find elsewhere. At premium prices, of course. But it does retain some of the original flavor, as produce remains its strength and since most produce is not regulated you can still find lots of good stuff there. (By the way, the webpage of the market ignores its previous history, only talking of the market from 2006 on, which is truly a pity)

The market has changed so much, that twenty years ago, I would go Sunday mornings because it was mostly empty (It opens from Thursdays to Sunday), but you would not necessarily find everything, most of the stuff had been sold. Today, Sunday are as bustling as any other day and what you can not get is likely due to its scarcity. The market has become so popular to look for scarce items, that even at noon on Sunday its still full.

These are some images from this morning:

On the left a picture of the produce section taken from above, you can see there is lots of produce and lots of traffic. On the right you can see the variety of produce you can find, since few of these are regulated, then you can find plenty of it at the right price. Not cheap, but most of it fresher and of better quality that you can get at the supermarket.

And then there is my favorite, the cheese vendors:

Some cheeses are regulated but many are not. He is well stocked. Note the beautiful PalmiZulia chunks on the left, the crinejas (strung cheese of a mozzarella-like cheese) on the right. One sign of the times is the “potes” (containers) of queso de mano, sort of in the middle. When these first appeared about fifteen years ago, they carried ten or twelve small “arepa size” cheeses. You can see on the left how they make them on small containers of three or four cheeses. The reason? The large container is 1200 Bs, (US$ 1.33) which most people can not afford, the smaller one is “only” Bs. 550 (US$ 0.60)

Even in the free market, it is really hard to find eggs:

On the left, you can see the empty egg store. I was told had some in the morning and they “think” they would get more in an hour. On that news, people start lining up as seeing on the picture on the rights. It’s only a hope, but the owners swears “some” will arrive.

While I was there there, was a big commotion:

The guy with the red shirt on the left is pushing a cart which has rice and oil, thus people start following him into the store on the right, where there were people already lining up for the goods that are arriving. As you can see in the picture on the right, this store specializes in hard to get goods at very high prices. You can see Corn Flakes, Domino sugar and on the left, all sorts of paper products that are scarce, such as diapers, feminine products and the like. Add oil and rice now, but those will not last long. As this was happening, the guy that owns the store where I was buying Saltine Crackers (hard to find) said to me: “I wonder where they can get that oil, I can’t”. (And that is his business line!)

The next two surprised me:

On the left a fruit stand that is usually well stocked. Most fruit stands looked sort of like this, half empty. This is not generally the case, fruit is like produce that you can find it because it is not regulated. On the right is the fish stand which was very well stocked, if you try to see the prices above the stand you will understand why, At Bs. 3,700. (US$ 4.1) it is not very affordable to the average population. (Remember the minimum monthly salary at the parallel rate of exchange is about US$ 10.7 per month)

You can have fun at the free market just reading the signs:

On the left, this stand advertises that it has a debit/credit card access point, but only for purchases above Bs. 500 (All of US$ 40 cents). In the middle a sign in the avocado stand plays a pun on the fact that the word in Spanish to play an instrument or touch something is the same: Do not touch (play), it is not a piano. BTW, the avocados were large and beautiful. Finally, a sign that says: For products with “just” prices (Maduro’s creation) there are no bags, additional bag Bs. 20 ( 2 cents).

Definitely signs of the times…

Finally, the free market continues to be a place for those with initiative:

On the left, a guy who claims to be a medical doctor and sets up a plastic table and provides Medical Certificates for driving. (Required in Venezuela) Today he was advertising hard, telling people that they should take advantage of it now, as the Government is about to increase the Tax Unit (Unidad Tributaria) which will increase the price of the Certificate, which today is at Bs. 600 (66 cents in US$). People were lining up for the bargain, including yours truly. That comes up to be about 11 US$ cents for year of validity of the certificate. (Remember on election day I was stopped by the cops and had all my documents in order, except that one)

And on the picture on the right above, the beautiful flowers grown in Galipan, inside the Avila mountain at near 6,000 feet above sea level. Flower growers from Galipan have been providing these since I was a little kid (Yes, eons ago) and as you can see, they continue to do so.

Always a welcome sight at the Mercado Libre de Chacao in Caracas.

This entry was posted on January 24, 2016 at 11:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized.