Today was the day to go pick up my new scarves and dress, so the plan was to do lunch, pick them up, then do a big shop for groceries.

For lunch, I went to Tony’s Burgers in the mercado to have one of their beef burgers. It wound up being quite good since it was made with real beef, but the patty was really thin and there was too much bun. I would rather pay more (it was $37) and have a better meat to bun ratio. Next time, I’ll ask if I can have two patties and I’m sure I’ll still come in at less than I would pay for a burger at Beach Burger. I even found Tony’s burger better than the super pricy ones at Mary’s in the Golden Zone, even if those have more meat. I still can’t believe it took me this long to discover Tony’s!

My things were ready for me when I arrived some time later at the seamstress. I hadn’t double checked my receipt when I went in last time and didn’t realise that her sister had put down seven scarves instead of eight. I paid for the eighth one and will have my friend Janet pick it up sometime next week and bring it to me on a Monday when she comes to Isla to ride.

Here’s my finished dress:

I look forward to being able to wear this one in Maz.  I’ve been wearing it around Isla without the straps, but I’m too much of a lady to go to town dressed like that. It’s a really flattering style and I’m happy to now have two dresses in that cut and fabric.

Here’s the first batch of scarves:

The colours are a bit off because of the weird lighting in the house. The far left one is actually a really deep brown, the middle one is steel-coloured, and the one on the right is a very dark purple. They’ll make nice neutrals.

Here are the more fun ones, with their colours being more reflective of reality:

The one on the far left is blue and white, then there’s a dark pink with white splotches, then a lighter pink with white flowers, then a mint green with purple flowers. The eighth scarf also had a bit of a tropical vibe and is similar to the one on the right.

The seamstress wasn’t pleased with the fabric I bought since it’s not super great quality and warned me that I shouldn’t be surprised if I snag a scarf and the fabric starts to run. I expected this. Modatelas (literally fashion fabrics), a higher quality fabric store, just opened by the Mercado to compete with Parisina and I’ll go there and look for better fabric, preferably a stretchy cotton, since the seamstress is available to make me more!

I then hiked a couple of blocks to Alemán and waited a few minutes for the Sábalo bus. On it, I met a Colombian hotelier who made me promise to go check out Colombia someday, something a colleague of mine has also told me. They both said the same thing: Colombia is a cleaner, better organised, safer, and cheaper Mexico that is currently a really well-kept secret since most of the world hasn’t figured out yet that Colombia is no longer the terrifying place it was 20 years ago. One day. 🙂

I really didn’t feel like going all the way up to Soriana, so I decided to do my shop at the big Ley. The bus was extremely crowded and I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get off. So as soon as I saw the Domino’s in the distance, with the turnoff to go to the big Ley only a block or two past there, I beeped the button. Sure enough, it took so long for people to let me through that the bus driver got impatient and drove off, only stopping again when I made it to the rear exit door and beeped again. That was fine as it brought me about a block closer to Ley. I hopped off and walked the three or four blocks to the store.

Ley had everything on my list, including hummus, but I got a little frustrated that all their beef was labeled “beef flesh.” I have no idea what I bought, but I’m hoping it’s similar to the “sirloin” stuff Soriana sells that I like. I really stocked up on meat for once since they had some good prices.

There was a woman promoting a product’s two-for-one sale. I had her hand me one and realised that it was a competitor brand for Tajín, the fruit seasoning (salt+chile+lime) I’m not nuts about, but which is strangely addictive. I’ve been wanting to try this other brand, La fina, so I put two bottles in my cart (for a grand total of $14).

The veggie section surprised me when I found kale. It wasn’t labeled and there was no price, but it was very fresh and there was so little of it that I grabbed it all, about the equivalent of two bundles’ worth at a supermarket in Canada.

The cashier asked me what the kale was and, of course, I completely blanked out. I pulled it up in the dictionary on my phone and told him to look up “col rizado” (spelling it out) or “repollo rizado.” Neither one came up. The produce manager came over and asked me where I had found the kale because he had no memory of it coming in. He went to look and confirmed that there was no label for it.

Finally, he said, “How much would you pay for this in Canada?” I did some math and figured about $40 (3CAD). His eyes went wide and he said, “That’s crazy!” He scrolled through the produce prices list a bit more and said, “It looks like fancy parsley. How does $14 sound?” SOLD. Then I told him I bought it all and he wouldn’t have to go through this again, which is where the accumulated crowd just lost it and doubled over laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

I then grabbed a pulmonía for the embarcadero (had a nice conversation with the driver), struggled to get my bags to the lancha because the package carrier guy wasn’t around, and accepted help on this side to get them into a pulmonía. I had to share it with a family going to the beach and as soon as we turned off the paved road and started to weave through the alleys to get to my house, the patriarch of the family asked where the hell we were going because he knew the beach was “that” way. I interjected and said that he was dropping me off at my house, which surprised him. Where the heck did he think I was going laden down with toilet paper, laundry detergent, and tons of food?! 😀

It never ceases to amaze me how a mundane day of running errands is so special down here!

Now, to figure out what I’m doing for dinner with all that kale!