I just thought I'd share some interesting experiences I had while travelling in South America. I spent time in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. I really enjoyed the food while I was there.

In Bolivia, once a week they'd block off a street and tons of food vendors would bring all sorts of stuff and lay it out on the side of the street on cloths or in buckets or barrels. It was absolutely beautiful to see all these piles of fruits, vegetables, spices, nuts and (non-Paleo) grains and beans. The colours were gorgeous and all the food was very fresh and grown within the country. So much more inviting to be wandering around in the fresh air, sunshine and people than pushing a shopping cart inside a temperature controlled, fluorescent lighted, processed foods box store! In fact in smaller towns there weren't any supermarkets! Prepacked meats and veggies were unheard of and stories were told about the crazy supermarkets in (more affluent) Argentina.

There were also meat markets that sold all kinds of meats from various animals (mostly beef, chicken, fish and pork) but you could get any part of the animal you want and you would specify to the vendor what part of the meat you wanted. There would be a huge slab of animal hanging on the wall and you pointed to what you wanted. You could get any internal organs you wanted too.

I also went to a few traditional barbecues that they called a "parillada". They would bbq almost an entire animal and serve it on a plate in the middle of the table and everyone would take slices of whatever they wanted. There was tripe, kidney, liver, and other organ names that I couldn't translate!

Another time I went to a really really small village that basically survives on subsistence farming. We roasted an entire pig over the fire. They served gigantic quantities of pork with tons of fat still on it. They'd even eat the skin, which kind of freaked me out, because there were little black bristles in it still! They also would suck the eyeballs and brains out of the head of fish because "it has the most fat in it". Obviously they appreciate their fat!

The people of Bolivia eat amazing amounts of meat, and they are definately thinner than people in Canada where I live. I was a GIANT when I was there, and I'm average for where I come from. Anyhow I really miss the access to all that amazing fresh food and naturally raised meat.

Anyone else have any stories to share?