Mercado San Pedro

San Pedro is the food market for the city rather than for visitors, though the two now overlap at the doors. Inside, the hall is organised by trade. A row of juice counters will blend whatever combination you name and hand it over in a jug with a refill. There is a bread section with the flat round Cusco loaves, a cheese row supplied from the Sacred Valley, sacks of dried maize in a dozen colours and kernel sizes, potatoes in varieties no supermarket carries, herbs, coca leaf, and flowers. Cooked-food counters at the back serve caldo de gallina early and set lunches at midday to people who work nearby.

What you actually see

• The juice counters - fruit blended to order and served by the jug.
• The maize and potato stacks - a dozen kinds of dried corn and dozens of potatoes.
• The cheese and bread rows - valley cheeses and the round flat Cusco loaves.
• The cooked-food counters - chicken broth in the morning, set lunches at midday.

When to go

Early morning is when the market works properly, before the walking tours arrive around ten. It is open every day and busiest on Saturday. The cooked-food counters are at their best between noon and two, when local demand keeps the turnover high. Late afternoon is thinning out and much less interesting.

Honest expectations

The aisles nearest the main doors are souvenir stalls now and worth walking past. The meat and offal rows are graphic and the fish corner smells accordingly. Eating from the hot counters is fine at a busy stall and a gamble at an empty one, and doing it on your first day at 3,400 metres, while your stomach adjusts, is a poor idea. Ask before photographing vendors.

Nearby

Cusco's Plaza de Armas is uphill; the San Blas artisan quarter is above it.