Silvia Tuesday Market

Silvia is an unremarkable highland town for six days of the week. On Tuesday it fills, as Misak families come in from the resguardos in the hills around it, arriving from early morning in trucks and painted chivas. Many wear the everyday dress that is still normal here: dark blue wool wraps, a bowler hat, a fringed poncho. The market itself is ordinary produce traded seriously rather than staged for anyone: highland potatoes, onions, herbs, grains, wool, cooking pots and plastic buckets. By early afternoon the trucks have loaded up and left, and the town goes back to being quiet until the following week.

What you actually see

• The Tuesday crowd - Misak families in blue wool wraps and bowler hats.
• The produce rows - highland potatoes, onions, herbs and grains.
• Wool and textiles - woven wraps, ruanas and skeins sold by weight.
• The chivas - painted trucks and buses arriving loaded from the hills.

When to go

Tuesday only, and the morning at that: from around seven until early afternoon, after which the trucks leave and the town empties. December to March is the drier stretch, though Silvia sits high enough to be cold and damp in any month. Transport from Popayan runs frequently on Tuesday mornings and thins out considerably afterwards.

Honest expectations

It is a market, not a spectacle, and visitors who arrive expecting a costumed display will find people doing their shopping. Photographing Misak people without asking is resented and often refused, and that matters more than the picture. The town is cold, plain and has little else to offer, and the road from Popayan is winding enough to bother anyone prone to travel sickness.

Nearby

Popayan is ninety minutes southwest; Tierradentro lies east over the mountains.