Bolivia Guide
La Paz
Mercado Buenos Aires
Address: Calles Max Paredes and Buenos Aires
The Mercado Buenos Aires, also known as the Huyustus, an old indigenous name for the district, is where La Paz's Aymara majority conduct their daily business. The vast open-air market sprawls over some thirty city blocks where anything and everything is bought and sold. Street after street is lined with stalls piled high with all manner of goods: sacks of sweet-smelling coca leaf and great mounds of brightly coloured tropical fruit from the Yungas; enormous heaps of potatoes from the Altiplano; piles of smelly, silver-scaled fish from Lago Titicaca; stacks of stereos and televisions smuggled across the border; endless racks laden with the latest imitation designer clothes. Behind almost every stall sits or stands a bowler-hatted Aymara woman, calling out her wares or counting out small change from the deep pockets of her apron, often with a baby strapped to her back or sleeping in a bundle nearby, oblivious to the cacophonous din of the market all around. Other stallholders sell the inexpensive drinks, meals and snacks that keep the market traders going through the day, ladling soup from steaming cauldrons, blending juices on wheeled trolleys, or hawking spicy salteñas from portable trays.