Paloquemao Market

Paloquemao is a covered market a few kilometres west of the historic centre, built around a flower hall that is at its fullest very early in the morning, when buyers arrive for roses and carnations grown on the savanna around the city. The rest is food: fruit stalls carrying lulo, feijoa, granadilla, curuba, uchuva, mangosteen and a dozen others that most visitors cannot name, herbs, potatoes in an implausible number of varieties, cheeses, meat and fish. Small counters at the back cook breakfast, tamal with hot chocolate, caldo, arepa de huevo. It is a working market that has grown comfortable with visitors without being rebuilt for them.

What you actually see

• The flower hall - savanna-grown roses and carnations, fullest before seven.
• The fruit stalls - lulo, feijoa, curuba and others you will not have met.
• Potato and herb rows - the range of Andean tubers sold by the sack.
• Breakfast counters - tamal, caldo and hot chocolate at the back of the hall.

When to go

Before seven for the flowers, which are largely cleared by mid-morning, and any time before early afternoon for the food. Sunday morning is the biggest flower day. The market closes in the early afternoon. Bogota is cold at that hour and the market floor is wet, so dress for both rather than for the tropics.

Honest expectations

It is a functioning market first and a sight second, so it is crowded, loud and slippery underfoot. Fruit sellers offer tastes and then expect a purchase, and prices quoted to foreigners run high, so ask before accepting anything. The surrounding streets are unappealing and not somewhere to wander. Arrive at ten and the flower hall, the best part, is already over.

Nearby

The historic centre and La Candelaria are fifteen minutes east by taxi.