The Municipal Market

This is the market where we like to do our shopping. Its official name is the Elias Mansour Municipal Market, but some people call it the "Colonists' Market" because the "colonists"--migrants from other regions settled in the Acrean countryside under government agriculture programs--come into town to sell their produce there.

Most vendors have pretty much the same stuff in the veggie section: lettuce, manioc (you can see it at bottom right), green onions (which usually come with a few sprigs of cilantro attached), mild peppers, sometimes onions, chayote, and a Brazilian veggie called maxixe (mah-shee-shee).

Behind where I stood to take this photo there is a fruit area, where you can usually find bananas, papaya, pineapples, avocados, and more exotic fruits like cupuassu and breadfruit. There is also another area through passages to the left where meat and fish are sold. Very fresh. Sometimes you see the vendors whacking the fish on the head to stop them flopping.

You don't tend to see people saying their veggies are organic or anything, and I really doubt that they are. But it's fresh and pretty cheap: a head of lettuce is about 5o cents, and really good river fish is about three bucks a pound.

The market looks a lot cleaner and nicer than it did on my last visit, in 2003. It got a makeover as part of the current government's vast project to beautify public spaces to increase the "self-esteem" of Acreans.

We don't get down to the market as much as we'd like--it's about four miles from our house. Fortunately, it's located right next to the central city bus terminal, so sometimes I stop by there when I'm downtown, load up on stuff, and ride the bus home.