The Sao Luis central produce market (CEASA Maranhao)

Sao Luis has three markets that are favorite places to photograph– the Mercado Municipal (city market) city’s historic center, the Mercado Central (central market) just above the city center and what wold have been the city center in the late 19th century, and the central produce market (CEAS-MA) a bit more removed from the old center but placed at a busy intersection for easy access for trucks and cars. There is also a Mercado de Peixe (fish market) near the Praia Grande at the water’s edge below the historic center, but I haven’t figured out how to get there early enough to photograph.

The Mercado Municipal and the Mercado Central are wonderfully tacky and unsuited for actual food consumption — a photographer’s dream, in other words. The CEAS – Maranhao is a working produce market that supplies the region with fruits and vegetables. There is some animal protein as well (fresh chicken, crabs, shrimp), but this place is above all a bustling produce center.

CEAS seems to be the place where groceries and restaurants buy their fresh produce. It is huge, though not compared to New York or Sao Paulo, and it has a constant stream of vehicles coming in and out in the early morning.

This is the place to buy fresh produce. There are also specialized vendors for prepared food, spices, and other items that are hard to find in neighborhood markets.

The basic engine of the market — strong young men loading and unloading trucks. Some come from as far away as the farms and produce distributors in Sao Paulo

In front of the market. There is so much going on that there is scarcely a place to sit, and then on boxes and crates

Individual retail shoppers are also here — and they are very careful shoppers

The fresh crab lady at the entrance of the market

The non-vegetarian section outside the market. This is very fresh chicken. In the lower left are live chickens in crates. In the upper center of the photo some of the chickens are feet up and ready to be sold

Vendors in the central market. Those are mangoes below

Bananas, huge watermelons, green oranges. A common type of orange here is green in color and relatively hard. It is eaten by peeling the outer skin, then the inner white covering. If you buy from a street vendor they remove the first skin, and may remove the second one if you ask

It is often difficult to find fresh herbs and spices in the city grocery stores. This man specializes in them and has some of his own mixtures

Men moving huge pumpkins from storage into a truck. This is a place of hard work

This food vendor serves a Brazilian specialty that may be unfamiliar to foreigners. It is a “tapioca” — not the tapioca pudding you might remember from your youth, or the tapioca balls that are srved in Asian markets in San Francisco. In Brazil the raw tapioca is fried as a crepe or small pancake, then filled with cheese, sweet condensed milk, or more imaginative fillings. This is the basic, throat-clogging tapioca

For those who want more than tapioca, this restaurant serves workers and visitors. The scripture is the one that begins with “And Jesus said ‘I am the bread of life…'”