Mercado Central

This guide to the Mercado Central in Lima follows nearly two centuries of the market's life, from an 1846 decree by president Ramon Castilla that built it on land taken from a nearby convent, through a 1905 rebuild and a kitchen fire that gutted it one night in February 1964. You'll hear how the market that opened three years later was engineered specifically around ice and water, with cold rooms and underground truck bays built to keep Pacific catch fresh in a city with no winter. Listen for the sound of the ocean end of the market underfoot, still running with melted ice before sunrise.