Mr. Eiffel's Market.

Alexander Gustave Eiffel is of course most famous for his tower, but he built projects all over the world. We walked across his bridge in Hanoi. See our post from 2009 on Long Bien Bridge.

What I didn't know was that he had an extensive body of work in Peru as well. In Arequipa alone he designed the Fenix Theater and the Iron Bridge.

In 1881, he designed the city's famous San Camilo Market.

It's still a thriving place today.



In fact, it's known as one of the best and most extensive markets in South America.



There are potatoes, of course. Peru is said to have over 3,000 varieties. There weren't that many here, but there were a lot.

Including these white ones. No, they're not peeled, they're actually white.

Stacks of great-looking local cheese.

Fat and tasty Peruvian olives.

Any kind of fruit your heart desires. And many it would desire if it knew what the hell they were.

Big, big squashes.



And of course crispy, fatty, delicious chunks and ribs of pork.

Our lunch plate. The potatoes here are very flavorful, even when they're just boiled. And the nuts on top are actually roasted kernels of corn. The corn here has kernels as big as your thumbnail. The roasted kernels taste like the unpopped kernels at the bottom of a bag of popcorn (always my favorite part), but you won't break your teeth chewing them.

Stuffed with pork, we waddled over to the line of juice ladies and each had a big glass of fresh juice. The variety of fruits and the combinations available made it very difficult to decide what we wanted. I had mango, pineapple, and orange. O had a complex concoction of fruit and vegetable extracts. We were both made happy.

Apparently others like more oomph in their juice. Look at the especial completo: beer, milk, egg, fruit, black carob syrup (full of vitamins), honey, and maca (looks like a radish, smells like butterscotch and is supposed to be good for tired blood). It's a meal in a glass.

Outside the market, there was a line of women selling little piles of vegetables from their home gardens. O came across this woman selling coca leaves and tried to get her to let us take her picture. She wouldn't take off her hat, even when several of locals joined in cajoling her. She said that she wanted glory for Jesus, not for herself.

On the way back to our hotel, we discovered the reason the streets here are so clean.

Even in the nicest neighborhoods, security precautions are intense. No one's using those mailboxes to climb over this electrified wall. Seems a little belt-and-suspenders to me, but who knows?

P.