📸 Photo

RESEARCHING THE HOUSING MARKET

whole place was falling apart and looked like no one there cared how they lived.

The cheapest of the five inside sections – Guanay, San Martín, Cancha, Prefectura and Palmar – had no star rating. Although each was officially separate, they were joined by a maze of tunnels, stairwells and damp passageways, making it difficult to tell where one section ended and the next began. It was easy to get lost because all the corridors were dark, with smashed bulbs that were never replaced.

We came out of one of these narrow passageways into the bright sunlight of a wide, open area where the air was fresh and people were sitting around relaxing. It looked like some kind of exercise yard and although I didn't feel completely safe, it was more bearable than being stuck in one of those corridors, especially with all the people around. Ricardo explained that this was the section called Cancha, which means 'playing field' in Spanish.

'This is where we have the annual football tournament. Can you play? Our section is going to win this year,' he declared proudly. 'But we really need players.'
'Yeah, a little bit,' I replied unenthusiastically. The idea of playing a game of soccer on concrete didn't much appeal to me.

Since the football field wasn't being used at the time, children were jumping along a hopscotch grid they had chalked up and were happily chasing each other everywhere. Around the perimeter, you could see inmates working on repairing and constructing furniture or making handicrafts to sell to visitors. Some prisoners lay on the ground in the sun; others simply stood watching. There were also women washing garments at the concrete basins, and others sitting around mending clothes and keeping an eye on the children. These were almost the same scenes that had greeted me on my first morning when I had woken up and didn't know where I was. Once more, I was reminded of a small village. I had only been in San Pedro three-and-a-half weeks, but so much had changed for me in that time.

In the next section, Ricardo pointed out a big, round hole in the ground with concrete steps leading down into it.
'They call that la piscina,' he said.
'What does that mean?'
'It means "the swimming pool".'
It was about two metres deep, but for a swimming pool, it was

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