March 16 ,2010
Some of you may be thinking that Kelly and Jason are living in a rustic, third-world country where we have very few amenities and are living a life of simplicity. Some of this is true, yet Honduras isn’t really as third world as you would imagine. At least La Ceiba for that matter. We have two malls, about 6 Pizza Huts, a few Dunkin Donuts and Wendy’s and Burger King (all the health food stores, you know!). We even have a Applebees and a Quiznos. And these are expensive places to eat. A donut at Dunkin Donuts cost over a $1 – for ONE DONUT! A pizza at Pizza Hut is over $15! How these people afford to eat there is beyond me, but they do and they do often!
Yesterday, Jason and I decided to get away from the bar and our neighbors for a bit. So, we went for a walk to the mall. Yes, the mall. (Apparently, there’s more than one in the city, but we have only visited the Mega Superplex). We decided to walk there instead of taking a bus or cab. This gave us a chance to walk down by the river and to jump in and out of the plethora of thrift stores you pass along the way. One thing this city is NOT lacking is thrift stores. However, the benefit of thrift stores is more the fact that they have a bunch of things you can’t find any where else, and less the fact that you find things really cheap. So, we pretty much have had to go to almost every thrift shop in La Ceiba (oh, I’m sure there’s a few dozen we still haven’t hit up yet), and in every thrift shop you have to ask what the price is and then try to bargain with them to get a better price. (Everyone pretty much assumes you have money because you are white – but hey, I’m not the one eating out at Pizza Hut!)
So, after picking up a couple door mats (a necessity when living on the beach and surprisingly not seen often around town!), we continue on our trek to the mall and arrive at just after 10:00 a.m. We head to the department store, Carrion, which hasn’t opened yet. The signs says it opens at 10, but looking around, it appears that every store in the mall is still closed. Hmmm…perhaps our clock is wrong? Nope. Seems to be correct. Apparently, even though this is a classic, almost American mall – they still run on Honduran time. Around 10:20, stores started to open up to the public and after enjoying a Granita de Cafe (frozen iced coffee for about a $1! coffee is cheap here, at least!), we shopped around Carrion searching for prices on household goods and things for the motel. We were successful at finding a stereo for about $80. Clearly it was an outdated model, since it had a dual cassette deck. But this was a fraction of the cost of every other stereo we have seen, including the one we found in thrift stores.
So, today we returned to the mall and went to purchase this stereo. And now, another lesson on shopping in Honduras. 1) Always ask if the item is returnable, even when in a department store in a mall. The answer: no. 2) Always test the product to make sure it actually works before purchasing. Because, what you may find upon opening the box is that you don’t even have all the pieces that should be with a stereo – such as a plug or an antenna. In this situation, you need to leave the stereo sitting on the floor of the department store and go into the mall to purchase an ac adapter so that you can plug the stereo in. This is exactly what we do, and after MacGyver’ing an antenna out of twist-tie, we finally get the radio and speakers to work. Success. Hopefully the CD player works – and if so, we have music for the bar. And that is how you purchase a stereo in a department store in a mall in La Ceiba.
So, all in all, another successful shopping day today. We found new spices to cook with and hopefully can test out some menu items tomorrow! But tonight, we are having Lobster tail for dinner! Hopefully it is yummy, because they deliver it right to my door every week.