San Camilo is Arequipa's century-old central market and an excellent place to feel the rhythm of the city away from the cathedral tour buses. The iron-and-glass building dates from 1881 and was designed in part by Gustave Eiffel's office. Inside, the layout is the traditional Peruvian one: fruit and juice stalls at the entrances, butchers and fish at the back, dry goods upstairs, and a long aisle of menú stalls along one side where you eat lunch shoulder-to-shoulder with market workers for under 15 soles.
Order the chupe de camarones (shrimp chowder) if any of the lunch counters have it on the board. The juice stalls do extraordinary fresh combinations using fruits — aguaymanto, lúcuma, granadilla — you won't have seen elsewhere. The market is busiest from mid-morning to early afternoon. Watch for pickpockets in the dense aisles.