It has been a full day. Deborah and I took a cab to Albrook Mall this morning. We got there before the mall opened, so we window-shopped outside a pet shop until the mall opened. There was a large green parrot that we considered buying to join us on our adventure. We spent time thinking about what we could train the parrot to say. Also, there was a very active-looking ferret. In the end, we thought John would not like the idea. He pointed out later that such pets cause significant problems when entering certain countries.
We split up in the El Cotco department store. We are amazed by the low cost of clothing. I purchased a pair of blue jeans, some nice shorts, and two swimsuits; the total cost was $16. We ask around using our less-than-adequate Spanish to get directions to a grocery store we know to be located in the mall. Sure enough, the grocery is just a few hundred yards away. We get two grocery carts as we understand we must buy provisions for at least a month. We will need some things by the time we get to Marquises. If there is no shopping, we must adapt to whatever is available.
Like the other grocery store, Reys, we find almost everything we look for at very reasonable prices. We even found some innovative food items we have not seen in US stores yet. There is a rogue sauce with no sugar and black olives without salt. There is salad dressing in a new kind of squeeze bottle. We find the wine selection in this store a little less than Reys. The prices are low, and our tasting of these wines has found them pretty good. We sample different colors, mostly reds and some whites.
Some drinks are stacked in a large pile of one-half-gallon bottles priced at $8 each. They are called Seca, and they look like water. We ask a store employee, using a lot of hand signs, if it is like vodka, rum, gin, or oso. After some interaction, he tells us it is unique and only like Seca. We buy some; it must be good; they have so much of it.
We now need three carts to hold our growing pile of purchases. It becomes pretty tricky to wheel three carts down the last three isles. We take two carts to a closed checkout line. A manager sees that we are big spenders and lets us leave the carts before a closed checkout position. We shopped for another half hour and spent another half hour having café,
a pollo empanada (me), and a donut (Deborah); this was lunch, as it turns out. It is a big thing when we return to check out; I don't think they get many shoppers provisioning a vessel for a long passage. Everyone is looking at us, wondering how we will manage such a large pile of groceries and why we need to buy so much. Thank goodness two store employees helped us with our two wholly filled larger carts. We find a taxi filling its trunk and back seat, leaving just enough room for Deborah. I sit in the passenger front seat. Getting to the marina, the driver quickly helps us unload and then drives off, leaving us with a massive pile of groceries. Bella Donna is 200 yards down the dock!
The groceries are all stowed; I hope we remember where we put them all. I hope it is not like finding a hidden Easter egg in July; everything has an expiration date.
It is 7 p.m., and we are still working on Bella Donna. Don left for the airport some time ago to pick up Dusty and Victor. We start our passage in the morning.
God Bless Bella Donna.
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