Bazurto Market — Local services in Cartagena

Mercado Bazurto o “basura”? Easily and sadly the FILTHIEST market I’ve been to in my travels. Please protect yourself from food poisoning and infectious diseases, and don’t eat or drink anything here, esp if you’re from overseas. Sure, you can come here to walk around and take pictures, if that’s your thing.

As a Colombian myself, I feel terrible that this impoverished place is glorified for tourists. It’s not a market for a good meal- it’s a slum with non-existent food hygenic practices. Anthony Bourdain came here pre-COVID, so I’m going to venture that the market went downhill after COVID. I was there yesterday and was sick like a dog after a meal and a juice there. I consider myself an adventurous eater and I love going to local markets to eat “where the locals eat”- that’s how I love to travel. But this place - and communities in need at large - need investment and a major clean up from the local government. The abject poverty with starving men, women, and children running from stall to stall to collect scraps and pick up people’s plates with leftovers and consume them and put them back on the table, and filthy food prep conditions - food left sitting out to rot and still be served - were heartbreaking.

And this place doesn’t put Colombia on the map at all. A celebration of real life, the buzz, the culture, and the history of a market are angles of the market which I had hoped to experience — but unfortunately, this market was the opposite: desperate, unsafe and unsanitary.

The picture in this review is my recovery breakfast the morning after Bazurto after an evening of severe...

Amazing experience, but not for everyone.

It's an amazing experience, it's gritty, you're surrounded by seemingly thousands of people; noise bustling pushing smells sights and amazing observations.

It's not for everyone so to be clear this is not a touristy thing to do you're not going to come here with your friends or with your kids and have an entertaining experience. The traffic is crazy, the noise is over bearing, but it's really an amazing experience if you enjoy that element of travel.

Some people have posted about safety. I can tell you I didn't observe a moment of fear or questioning my safety at all. Everyone there is just doing their business and going about their day and very welcoming to the visitors who come there. At the same time you have to be wise to being a visitor in another country with where your wallet is with where your cash is with how you're handling yourself and behaving. Just remain self-aware try to behave in a humble manner, behave, you'll be fine.

Lots of stands with fish, yeah it smells but no big deal, and there's another section for the meats that can be something difficult to see if you're not accustomed to it. And then the fruit stands and it goes on forever and there's another section where people are making amazing dishes for lunch that's two or three dollars it's a delicious meal.

I hired a guide who knows the market extremely well he was very helpful negotiated some things for me showed me around introduced me to friends of his who's a...

SCARY AND UNSAFE! DO NOT GO HERE! Thankfully the ladies warned us on the way out to put down our phones and hold on to our purses. As soon as we walked in it was a terrible sewage and gross rotten Seafood smell. We walked in just a little bit and turned around. It was worse than things I've seen in scary alleys in New York city. One of the reviews here said it's worse than the slums in Argentina. Stay away! Here's a video that I took outside which was a nicer part of the market compared to going inside, but they were still scraping gross slimy smelly garbage off of the ground in the street. Really gross. (Only pic posted, not video, again this was a nicer part of the market but still so very smelly and unhygienic). Looking at other reviews of this Market they must have gone to a better area (song the puctures they posted). Our Uber driver told us specifically which entrance to go and to go in deep inside and I really thought we were going to get mugged (NO JOKE). If you're ever advertising going to attempt going here I would recommend to go with a tour guide so you don't have the experience we did. UNBELIEVABLE SEWAGE AND ROTTEN...