Searching for
Markets| OK...so this is how things seem to happen to me in Costa Rica. Sonja was looking for a place to get a massage (I'd be interested in knowing if there's a place in Heredia too. So I post a question on the Costa Rica Living listserve. The answer comes back that there's a good place across from where the Saturday Market is. So that leads to the question "Where is the Saturday Market"? Oh...just two blocks below where the old hospital is (seems they're building a new one someplace too). Good..."where's the old hospital"? Keep in mind here that there are no addresses, no street names, no schedule of events and damn few usable maps. So my cybor-friend cuts a map from a webpage and sends it to me. Now I know where the hospital is.
Next step, find the hospital. I take the bus to town and using this map that has maybe half the streets on it wonder towards where I think the hospital may be. I see some large scale construction going on a bit further from the highway than I think the hospital is...but then how many streets were NOT on the map. Construction is NOT the hospital. I take a second look at the map and decide that I'm way off as to where the hospital is. So I head back toward the highway, soon walking past the hospital.
Now I walk back down the hill to come to some guess as to where the Saturday Market would be if this were Saturday. I make a guess and start to look for a sign about massages. No sign. I've done all the damage I can for one day. Go home.
Saturday...Let's go find the market!
We tried to get off at the hospital, but the bus just kept going to the park. From there we walked to the hospital and headded down the street. I had a theory of where the market would be. There was a dirt road just below this super wide paved road. The dirt road would be just about right for the 20 or so stands I would expect.
You would think with the population of San Jose that the largest markets would be there, not so.
The market isn't on the dirt road. It's on this wide highway. And not for just a block or two, it heads off to the horizon...10 or 15 blocks away! Not just on both sides of the road, they've put stands down the middle and on both sides creating a two lane market. The largest I've seen so far! The most variety and the best quality, if not exactly the best prices, but still 30% to 60% of what you pay in the stores for poorer quality.
It's often been pointed out to me, and I agree, that there's nothing for sale at a mall that is necessary for life. It's all junk! It's all just STUFF, to stuff your life with!
Saturday Market is just the oposite! Vibrant alive people willing to engage in conversation with you, selling things that THEY grew or made. Things you really need. Things of quality. Things they're proud of! The people (and there are sooooo many people at market), also more alive, not sedated by the crapy music, planning meals, partys, LIFE! You see large shopping carts being pushed, usually my Chinese, purchasing dozens of mangos or chickens. You just know for a restaurant someplace. Fresh food. Not processed as per government bull shit regulations.
THIS IS LIFE! And I fear that in most of the US we have lost this. Forever? |
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