Shopping for the big trip 8:55.2N 79:31.8W

Pacific Bliss
Colin Price
Thu 20 Jan 2011 14:48
Shopping with LIZ
160 tins of tomatoes
30lbs of sugar
50 packets of pasta
half a hundred weight of porridge
10 x 5 kilos raisins
6x 5 kilos prunes
2 trolley loads of tinned veg
20x5kilo bags of  flour etc etc etc
10 kids tee shirts
8 pairs of shoes
1 boogie board (should have bought 2)
12 masks
10 snorkels
3 pairs of flippers
5 Rapeller fishing lures
40 lock and lock tupperware boxes
500 zipp locks

BASICALLY 6 landcruiser loads of food shopping and and that's not including the beer and wine which is helping to balance the boat in the other hull.
We were told to sink the boat with provisions whilst in cheap old Panama so that is what we are doiing.

The lists have been being compiled for weeks and the bank don't seem to have been informed.  So when I get through the till of 'Price Smart'  with my first 3 industrial trolley loads full the bank decide to refuse the card.  It's taken 3 hours to collect this amount of stuff plus I have a driver about to arrive to ferry me back to the dinghy dock.  You can imagine the state of my nerves,  but I do manage to pursued the manager to keep my stuff to one side and I will return tomorrow to pay.  With arrange Landcruiser Tony to collect me at 8.30 the following morning to make my major assault.  We get to 'PS' only it's closed,  this is a shop I will later become upsett, frustated, humilliated and enphuriated by, but for now it's just not open.
This allows me to start shopping in the other store.  I have been doing a comprehensive list over the past months about which shop sells which product and which product is worth buying in bulk.  We are going to survive on tinned veg at some points, so we need to find tins that are near edible. So 4 trolleys later at Reys supermarket I'm able to go pick up last nights shopping.  Only this time the girl on the checkout is a little more thourgh and notices my credit card details are different from the borrowed membership card I am using from Rosanna,  and whilst I fain a story of lesbenism I am humilliated and forced to buy a membership card.  It all seems a bit bonkers as I eventually spend over 3,000 dollars on groceries, anyway lesson learned,  save the embarrisment and spend the  32 $ on a membership next time...........the only thing they need to catch onto now is that it's Colins card I am using not one with my name on it.  Suspect the police would have been called at that point.

Tony manages to take the first 2 trolleys only leaving 1 in the store, I retrace my steps to where I left off yesterday.  Another 4 mega trolleys later and the return of tony things are going to plan.  Only this time there is no way we are going to get all 5 loads in the truck, this is only realised once we have loaded 3 trolleys..  I think no problem at this point I can get the stuff delivered to the dingy dock for colin and chums to load up whilst I sit in the rangie old cafe revising my lists.  Not so,  The Old Bag on the door refuses to let me re-enter with my 2 paid-for trolleys.  It's about the first time I really need to be fluent in Spanish, but instead I just had to nod in a rather exasperated manor and sit on a tolley in the mid day heat reforming my lists.

It's no mean feat shopping for a year, it's a full on stressy job that requires you to bus hop in a mega city you don't know with folk speaking a language you still haven't mastered.   Both of us was willing for this stage to be over but also worried we might forget a vital requirement.  We basically know when we leave from here we are on our own.
 
The kids are brilliant as for the 2 weeks in Panama they are totally neglected,  even meal times are missed or substituted with a cereal bar.  Cosmo is delighted at first as most evening we end up retreating to the shore for a pizza and during the day he is able to watch films films and more films,  but even he get bored of the selection of the now 100 kids films we seem to have compiled.  Z loves buzzing about from mall to a south american style veg market,  3lb of toms for $1 is a treat.  Still many of the places we need to visit for Gas and veg are rather dodgey so you have to be on your guard and kind folk in the area will tell you not to walk the streets in said areas.
 
We have a very stange farwell meet with lolo,  All with cloths on and in a over the top Mall,  where we shop for plastic and eat over processed food. Roseanna is ready to pop and our heads are popping with the need to get organised.  Hugs kisses and see our buds in Europe soon enough.

 
Shopping with Colin
Altenators, Filters, Fedex, Oil
It all boils down to
a town of streets and taxis
full and sweaty, hot and dusty.
 
No day is complete 'cos you are never done
Just do what you can
and then wake up and do it again.
 
Saca Bus from Brisas to Cinquo de Mayo. 
What does it all mean?
Albrook, Abernathy, Rio Abajo
Malls for all.  Barios for the people.
 
The last straw is under the sink
You would think that a drain would be right
but this boat is 10 years old
and it was sold with a dodgy sink
All good now in Panama .... that was easy
 
Old town is a show town.
Nice for the tripper, but not a great as Cartegena.
Quick nosh in the Coca Cola Cafe and then back to . . . .   Shopping.
 
Putting away
Took three days just to pack the stuff away.  Finally the job was done and we had spent exactly two weeks rushed off our feet.  Check out with the port captain and immigration, fresh veg shopping, a quick refuel in Flamenco marine and then off.
 
PHEW!!