Shopping in Puerto Rico - Frustrating and Surprising at Best

So on Tuesday I opted to head out to Walmart for 3 things - bags of cat food, another nozzle for the hose, and a blanket. Yes I am cold at night now despite having a couple blankets already. It is dipping into the high 60's!!! First off, I should have known it would be hellish by looking at the mall parking lot. I did not realize the kidlets were not in school yet. I persevered parking, looked for a blanket in Marshalls's (which is a huge pigpen, flea market store full of broken and damaged things with really long lines all the time). No king size blankets in Marshalls. I head to Walmart and get a cart since I know they have the nozzle and cat food. I get stuff in the cart (no king size blankets or blankets at all) and find a shirt for yard work as well. I peruse the store since you never know when something new and unexpected will show up like Asian Fish Sauce maybe? No. I see kids pounding bread loaves flat. The typical Puerto Rican "me first and I don't care if I block the aisle to chat and don't care if my ass if blocking your cart" attitude. I get in line. Something snaps as the line doesn't move and everyone in line has 6 people with them chatting on their phones and blocking things and touching everything. Generally a bad day for me and I did what I NEVER have done before - abandoned the cart and got the hell out! I checked Pueblo for fish sauce and cardamon. The other mission was to find green food. I went home to the peaceful property and had some coffee and petted the kitties. Much better.

The next day I am on a REAL mission for the blanket and green foods. This time I head south to Yauco. My first stop is the nursery where we got our cement table. I figured I could start things off well by looking for a big cement or metal doo dad to hang in our "sun room" porch area to liven it up. They had a gecko but it was 20 bucks and small. Hmmm. So I left empty handed and continued on a road I hadn't been on to get to Yauco. And there is front of me is a giant Pitusa Supermarket! Maybe green things are in there? No fish sauce, no green things but I scored some Lays BBQ potato chips (which I ate for lunch- yes big bag). Then there was a Marshall's. Marshalls is a love-hate (mainly hate) store. If you can get past the flea market thing and happen to be in a shopping mood (rarely) you might find something like my cool perfectly in tune wind chime. Usually not. But this Marshalls was like a normal in-the-states store with lower prices. Clean, uncluttered, nothing broken, nothing damaged and no lines! I didn't find a blanket (had to go to San German Kmart for that-6 minutes from my house) but I did find things.


This cute suit was 14 bucks. I can always use a bathing suit since elastic seems to get sticky and disappear here.

I found this neat coffee mug - I like having coffee in the morning in a special mug. $3.99

This rain jacket isn't something I was looking for, but is something I need for rainy hikes or going down to the gate, or from car to store. $14 and pretty blue. You have to get these things when you see them - I haven't seen raincoats here. I love that it isn't an REI price.

I picked up this SPF 40 light weight wick water away yard work shirt for Jeff.

I found this New Balance light weight shirt for caving that has a pocket on the arm (for car key or back up batteries or whatever) and is asymmetrical up top with a zipper. The neck is great because it will be under the harness straps without being a heavy shirt. $12

There was an organized shelf of not too many xmas ornaments so it wasn't overwhelming. I got two "kitties on slippers" - $3 for the pair, and the white kitty for $2.

These geese were $3 for the pair. In Puerto Rico if you see something you even THINK you may need you have to get it. You may never see it again! So I scored. I then went to Grande in Yauco and got cellophane noodles, rice sticks, some other Asian spices/sauces but NO FISH SAUCE. This is a nice store, but still no green. But all in all a worth while trip and the quest for real food continues!