La Cancha Market

The girl in the centre is demonstrating an amazing manual egg beater. She has the most amazing froth of egg whites in that bowl!

Saturday morning in La Cancha market is a madhouse. It is market day so the huge market, covered and open, is an anthill with people milling around in every direction carrying huge bundles of every description. It is still the domain of the “cholita”, indigenous women wearing the traditional pollera (skirt), and hat (in Cochabamba made of straw these days), but now the variety of clothing is much greater ranging from the pollera to “hot pants” and every imaginable combination in between. A fairly common syncretic garb among younger women is leggings and teeshirts but topped by a straw hat. The awayu, the multicoloured cloth traditionally used to carry everything from babies to vegetables, has not outlined its usefulness so it is still very much in evidence.

We managed to buy 6 and a half dozen pairs of socks, towels and soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes and then carted them back. Primo will take them up to San Benito this afternoon.

Tomorrow they have a meeting in the village because the government has purchased land and allocated it to 720 Aymara families which means that the Quechua people who have traditionally lived in the High Valleys will find themselves outnumbered in this locality. They are searching for ways to prevent this happening and all the villagers will meet to discuss events.