Cochabamba is suppose to be known for its culinary experience but if you ask us, it should be known for its market: If you want anything, you can probably find it in La Cancha.
"La Cancha" in English means sports field... and this is how it all started - this area used to have football (soccer) fields where ladies with carts came to sell food and drinks. Over time, the football fields disappeared and were replaced by market stalls. Now La Cancha is massive, with multiple markets spanning several square blocks (including a converted train station), and pouring into the streets in every direction. Each little shop/stall is, on average, about 2-3 meters wide which means that there are probably thousands of stalls!!…. We've been to many markets in our travels and we were both absolutely blown away by the size and variety at this one!
For our day of exploration, we set out to find a small guitar for Jen. After 1.5 hours of asking a lot of directions and walking in circles through the narrow aisles, we finally found what we were looking for!! It was quite the exciting and exhilarating search… along the way we saw stalls selling everything from live chickens, cameras, vegetables, suits, fabric, tools, electronics, bike parts, and of course food... just to name a few. And, we are now proud owners of a small, inexpensive (180 Bolivianos ~= 30usd) guitar to play around / practice on during our travels :).
Overall, we haven't really been blown away by the foods we've tried here so far, EXCEPT that we accidentally stopped in at this Empanada/Saltena shop called Wist'upiku and haven't been able to stop going there since - we just can't get enough of their cheese or chicken empanadas!! Yum!!
