Buried Alive

Under a mountain of boxes and paper and shrinkwrap and Goodwill reject blankets (which we used for furniture pads). Those of you who saw the mountain of cardboard boxes on the front porch of the house in Nashville should be aware that the mountain down here in Boquete is actually bigger in diameter and almost as tall. Bob would like to find someone to give them to, and truth be told, so would I. But my "let's wait and see if someone will turn up who wants them" timeframe is not as long as his. And anyway, there is another mountain of boxes inside the house - well, maybe a hill - that still needs attention.

I went to the grocery store in David today. I chose Supermercado Rey in David because it is the closest thing to a Norte Americano supermarket. I found almost everything on my list - even considering that 95% of the labels were only in Spanish. But it took forever. There are a lot of differences in inventory. For example, the frozen food department was less than half the size of those in Tennessee. No TV dinners. No microwave snacks. No Mrs. Smith's Pies (sob!!). No frozen pizza.

Potato chips are about twice as expensive down here. And there is not much choice in cookies - or peanut butter.

And mayonnaise and mustard - and tomato sauce - come in squeeze pouches! Actually pretty clever packaging, don't you think?

The biggest shock to me, however, was seeing Reynolds Wrap 200 sq.ft rolls for almost 10 DOLLARS! I nearly had a heart attack!

Next trip I'm going to make my grocery list and then translate each item into Spanish BEFORE I go.

I still wonder why people would need to buy vanilla extract by the gallon...

Maybe I will now be able to cook a meal. I think I'd like that...