Persa Bio Bio Antiguedades

This guide to Persa Bío Bío in Santiago traces how a flea market for used bicycles and dead men's furniture grew out of tannery workers' after-shift trading in the 1940s and swelled when Chile's 1982 economic collapse pushed the newly unemployed into the abandoned warehouses nearby. It follows the waves of Peruvian, Colombian, Thai and Chilean sellers who filled those blocks afterward, and a persistent rumor among regulars about where the best food in the market is really hiding. Listen for the smell of peanut and lime as you head down Placer street.