The Mercado Feria Libre experience!!

Today is Saturday, October 2^nd and I went for my walk and I brought the camera with me this time.  The photos are below.  I walked east down river to the pedestrian bridge and back.  When I got back I took pictures outside of our room in the courtyard and of the outside dining area where we eat our continental breakfast.

After breakfast we prepared to go to the Mercado Feria Libre to buy vegetables and flowers and anything else Di could think of.  So off we went by bus.  We took the 7 bus to the Mercado.

Do you remember back in our previous posts we told you about sensory overload at Mercado 10 de Agosto?  Well, let me tell you.  The Mercado Feria Libre experience is at a level of ten to fifteen times that of the Mercado 10 de Agosto.  What is sad is we didn’t bring the camera.  We only went for a few items and we figured it would be the same as we had previously seen at Mercado 10 de Agosto.  Not so.  What a place.  There is no describing it.  The next time we go, we will take photos.  I will say that watching the guys set off the bottle rockets was fun.  These aren't your USA bottle rockets.  These are an inch in diameter and 6 inches long and are on sticks as big around as a pencil.  They make a report that you would expect at a professional fireworks display.

We must have walked a mile inside and outside and we didn’t cover anywhere near even a twentieth of what was there.  It may have been even less than that.  What is amazing is how cheap everything is.  We were gone for about two hours.  With the bus ride there (50 cents),  buying a flower vase (39 cents), two bunches of flowers ( roses and carnations) ($2.50), potatoes ($1), carrots (30 cents), fresh shelled peas ($1.30), and fresh green beans ($1.50), lunch (we have no idea what it was but it was good) with a drink ($1.50), and a cab ride home ($2, I felt generous and I got to quit doing that).  So we spent $12.  Here are photos of what we bought.

As we said lunch was almost unrecognizable.  It was a stew concoction that they make up right there.  It consisted of, as best we could tell, boiled potato, onion, pieces of unknown fish, unknown hard beans and unknown spices in an unknown broth and unknown green leafy stuff sprinkled over the top.  They had us squeeze lime over it using a special lime squeezer that neither one of us had ever seen before.  It was good.

The cab ride back was quick and uneventful.  We put everything away and will take a siesta.  We are getting even better at siesta everyday.  We plan to go to INCA Bar & Grill to watch college football this afternoon and if they are going to show the Florida Alabama game then we will likely be very late getting home.  Till then I worked on the blog.

We took a bus to INCA Bar and Grill at about 4 PM and found out they didn't get any of the college football games but our day was saved when they put on baseball.  We watched some of the Phillies and Braves game until the Rays game came on.  We watched the Rays game till the end.  We had a great meal and lots of Pilsener.  This is our second time there and we have to say that of all the places we have eaten so far the food here has been the best.  The atmosphere is like being at home rather than being in a bar and grill.  The area we like has sofas and chairs and face two flat sceen TVs which always have something on good.  Everyone there is great and we really like Mike the owner.  When the game ended Mike called us a taxi and we went home and to bed.  So ended another day in our adventure.