Did I ever tell you about my neighbor who brought me 40 star fruits and 20 pounds of caja? Or the time she handed over about 50 bananas and 16 mangoes? Well today she took me to the same market she bought them from: Ceasa. While many tourists and locals delight in the brightly painted walls of Mercado Sao Jose or Boa Viagem, with piles of beautiful foods, crafts and art, the market of Ceasa looks more like the ugly step sister. Its worn and rusty warehouses stand covered with ripped canvases flapping in thew wind; gritty trucks and matching drivers roll over potholed asphalt and mud to unload thousands of pallets daily. It's definitely big and definitely ugly, but functions surprisingly well as headquarters for food sale and distribution coming into the state of Pernambuco.
Perhaps what is most interesting is that many warehouses contain several companies selling a single product. We visited the orange warehouse, the pineapple warehouse, the onion warehouse... bananas, potatoes, and coconuts. It was a lesson in bulk buying, something I feel I should excel at as a card carrying member to Costco. I thought was I able to keep up with my neighbor as I bought 4 pineapples for 5 about $1.50 (USD). She deftly purchased 50 pineapples for $10. She picked up 200 oranges for $7.60 and a whole smear of other things at jaw dropping prices. Then she introduced me to one of her cousins who owns a banana company and I ended up with 10 bunches. Along with four packs of grapes and 5 mangoes. It was delightful and a little bit of crazy. I was getting all sorts of revved up to buy! buy! buy! Then I realized I'd be the one washing all the stuff once I got home- maybe I didn't really need 75 pounds of potatoes.
Perhaps what is most interesting is that many warehouses contain several companies selling a single product. We visited the orange warehouse, the pineapple warehouse, the onion warehouse... bananas, potatoes, and coconuts. It was a lesson in bulk buying, something I feel I should excel at as a card carrying member to Costco. I thought was I able to keep up with my neighbor as I bought 4 pineapples for 5 about $1.50 (USD). She deftly purchased 50 pineapples for $10. She picked up 200 oranges for $7.60 and a whole smear of other things at jaw dropping prices. Then she introduced me to one of her cousins who owns a banana company and I ended up with 10 bunches. Along with four packs of grapes and 5 mangoes. It was delightful and a little bit of crazy. I was getting all sorts of revved up to buy! buy! buy! Then I realized I'd be the one washing all the stuff once I got home- maybe I didn't really need 75 pounds of potatoes.
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| This stall cleverly named "Swimming in Oranges" |
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| Fresh coconut. |
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| Bushels of green stuff.. |
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| Banana warehouse. |
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| 33 pounds of margarine for $21 |
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| Potato warehouse |
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| Pineapple warehouse. |
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| Fitting it all into the Fiat. |
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| Now deciding where to put it. |
Whoa!
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