Shopping Roatan style

The Elusive Purchase…

At home in Canada if we need something we go to a store and the chances of it being there are very high. So you walk in, and if the price is right you buy it. Or you look in the flyers and see that it is on sale at another store.

Not so here.

Nope.

Shopping is a whole other experience.

The other day we went to get groceries and the shelves were quite bare. We have 3 groceries stores that are usually fairly well stocked and lots of little pulperias (small little shops… the key word is small) So when all else fails we drive to another grocery store. I had a craving for yogurt. I didn’t think it would be a problem. So we go to another store and no yogurt. So we drive home. A little disappointed but well acquainted with not being able to get certain things when we want them. It is good for the soul to not always have instant gratification (so they say!)

So a few days later we are out and I slip into the grocery store heading directly to the dairy section looking for ‘you know what!’. Nothing. The frig is bare. Not one little yogurt container. Strange.

This happened a few more times (whose counting??!) and each time there is a growing craving. Suddenly I NEED yogurt. My life is incomplete and I am getting desperate. There is a buzz in the grocery store and I realize I am not the only one who is having a ‘time of discontent’. It turns out that the ship didn’t come in but it would be in next Thursday. Hallelujah. Hope is on the horizon. It was Tues. and yes I can wait. Heaven’s sake I can wait. You need to realize that it isn’t just yogurt it is a lot of basic staples that are now missing from the shelves. Things are getting slim pickings.

Thursday arrives. Guess what we do??! We drive to French Harbor and head happily to the grocery store. I am bee-lining to the dairy section.

No yogurt! In Canada we would say, I want to speak to the manager!!

In Roatan, we say.. hmmm I guess the ship didn’t come in again.

So next Thursday rolls around and I am cautious. There is no running to the store that day. But the next day we are in Coxen Hole doing some banking so I casually stroll into Warren’s Grocery store and suddenly there is this welling up of hope inside me. I just feel it. The shelves are fuller then ever… lots of pickles, jams, bread, chips, and as I head down the dairy aisle I am smiling because I just KNOW!

YOGURT!! It is the small joys. Yes indeed. Then I realize I only have 100 limpiras on me (5.00) but I figure I can get one big container and few small cherry flavours for Bob. Alrighty!! I am beaming. I put my yogurt on the counter. I greet the lady sincerely Buenas Dias. I reach into my pocket and realize.. oh no.. I only have 70 limpira. So I try my best in Spanish to explain I don’t have enough money. She takes two of my yogurt away and I am still okay.

When Bob comes out of the bank I am waving my little bag in the air and he knows. Success!!! YES!!

Such is life on the island.

I hope this helps you to not take for granted the daily things that you have in that lovely land we call Canada.

Here is another shopping experience for you:

Having our laptops here on the island is wonderful but it would be so great to have a desk. Bob had been sitting on the couch and working on the coffee table and I had been sitting in a chair with my computer on my lap. I now have a desk at our new rental place but Bob has been working on the table.

A desk. Now that would be great to have here!

So we began looking around for a desk. We found one desk at an exclusive island furniture store for $800.00!! No thanks!

I guess people don’t use desks on the island or they bring them over on the mainland.

Bob thought about building one. There is such wonderful Mahogany wood here that he thought it would be a nice project.

Earlier this week we are visiting our friends Marco and Zenola and she mentioned that her sister is moving to Miami and is selling all her furniture. So I think.. a desk maybe?? As it turned out, yes she does have a desk. Zenola called to see if her sister was home and we decided to go right over. She lives in Flower’s Bay at the top of a high hill. We parked at the bottom of the hill and began the trek up the hill. The road had been completely washed out so there was no way a vehicle could get up or down there. So we climbed and climbed and climbed.

We had a great visit together and were pleased to see that the desk was exactly what we wanted!! ( a little beat up but it would do) So I said, How much do you want for that desk? They hummed and hawed, and discussed in the back bedroom. I guess it is hard to know what to charge a gringo. So finally she comes out and said “how about 300.00?” The look on my face registered shock. It was a nice desk but not worth that!! Then Zenola said… “Oh 300 limpira!!”

We all breathed a sigh of relief. That meant she was willing to sell her desk for $16.00.

Bob looked at her and said, “Would you take 20.00?”

Julia said, “But that is more then 16.00!”

He smiled and said… so that is a good deal for you then isn’t it?

Now here comes the tricky part… how to take the desk down the hill. The only way is to carry it down. At first Marco and Bob decided to try to carry it together but parts of the hill were slippery and they were concerned they would slip and the desk would be wrecked. . So Bob, my hero, hoisted it up on his back and down the hill he went.

You just never know what you find on the island, where, or when but it is always an adventure!!

Well that’s enough for now.. I think I am going to eat some yogurt!!