Top 5

  1. San Telmo antiques market
Buenos Aires is a bargain hunter's dream, with several fantastic markets competing for the attention of the city's discerning shoppers. Our favourite is the San Telmo antiques fair - a top-class flea market centred around the small Plaza Dorrego each Sunday. Vendors sell everything from junk to pricey antiques, while tango dancers twirl each other around beside the stalls.

There is also a great artisan market beside La Recoleta Cemetary (where Evita and many other Argentine luminaries are buried), or if you fancy something more rustic, hop in a taxi to the outlying district of Mataderos. Here you'll find a rip-roaring Sunday market 'where city meets country', according to the gauchos who are the guests of honour at this traditional and high-spirited event. Cattle trading, handicraft stalls, barbeque meats, live folkloric music and atmospheric street dances are all key attractions, but the most unforgettable scene is the 'race of the ring' - where gauchos race their horses at breakneck speed towards a dangling wedding band, which they attempt - and often manage - to spear with a stick.

  2. The Witches' Market, La Paz
The world's highest capital city is also home to one of its most unusual markets. At La Paz's mercado de las brujas, or witches' market, indigenous 'witches' sell amulets, charms, potions, magic herbs and - notoriously - dried llama foetuses for use in traditional Aymara rituals. Fortunately though there is plenty more on offer, and the market is an excellent and very affordable place to pick up beautifully crafted souvenirs and gifts. Not only that, but walking around the vertiginous streets and alleyways in this city of slopes is also a great way to sample La Paz's unique atmosphere.

  3. Otavalo, Ecuador
Ecuador's indigenous markets are amongst the continent's most evocative, with the traditional costumes of the locals particularly capturing the imagination. Vendors from small villages still wake well before dawn to travel to market, laden with goods - making the bus journey with them is well worth the early start.

Ecuador's most famous market is Otavalo, where the prosperous Otavalan indians sell handmade goods including the textiles for which the region is particularly recognised. Surrounding the town there are crater lakes, rolling hills and tiny, whitewashed adobe villages each specialising in a cottage industry, from leatherware to woodwork.

  4. Chichicastenango, Guatemala
The centrepiece of colourful Chichicastenango is the church of Santo Tomás, whose picturesque steps form a focal point for gatherings, traditional rituals and market trade. The 18 steps - one for each year of the Mayan calendar - are shrouded in a perpetual mist of incense and dotted with flower sellers every Thursday and Sunday, when vendors from the surrounding area descend on the town for one of the largest and most spectacular markets in Central America. There you can pick up wonderful textiles, carvings and handicrafts, mingle amongst locals in traditional dress and try out the small comedores (basic eateries) which offer some unique specialities.

  5. Ver-o-peso, Brazil
The city of Belém is located at the Amazon's mouth, and acts as a hub for the boats that ply the murky waters into and out of the rainforest. The exotic products on offer at its market, Ver-o-peso, attest to its status as the port of the Amazon: you can find all manner of fruits, outrageously shaped fish, love potions and wooden crafts in and around the market building - a bright blue gothic hall imported prefab from England in the 19th century. While nowadays Belém has plenty of the downsides associated with cities of its size, seeing endless baskets of açaí berries (a Brazilian staple now popular over here as a 'superfood') being brought to shore by night remains an incredibly atmospheric sight. As the boats depart back into the heart of the Amazon, it is hard to resist the urge to follow them.