La bodegona

Eating out has been convenient and enjoying the food is one of the best parts about traveling. But to be completely transparent, it’s day 5 for me and I’ve had my share of burgers, fried chicken, Dominos, Panda Express and hotel food. I’m looking forward to eating more veggies and since I’ll be here another couple of weeks, I figured it may be time to start cooking. Plus, saving a little coin would be a bonus.

After enjoying a wonderful breakfast at a local restaurant in Antigua, I set out to go to la bodegona (bo-dey-go-na). I expected it would be a local grocery store, which it was but there was so much more and the overall experience was interesting. They sell some of everything, including the libations. I managed to find all the items I was in search of while dodging the employees suggesting “oftertas”. Essentially, store employees suggestive sell items by presenting them to you in the aisles of an already crowded shop.

On my first visit, my total came to 133.75 quetzales. That’s equivalent to about $16 USD. I feel like I got a lot for the money and I finally had a basket of goods to use as reference point for how much things cost. I even stuck to the list I’d quickly jotted down at breakfast. The plan was to buy veggies and potatoes to prepare for dinner and to pick up a few shower essentials.

Here’s a list of everything I picked up:

• 2 bars of Dove soap

• 2 - 1 liter bottles of water

• 2 - single use packs of shampoo

• Small container of hair gel

• Microfiber towel

• Pack of chocolate chip cookies

• Pack of butter cookies

• Strawberry yogurt beverage

• Adobo seasoning

• Baby zucchini

• Red pepper

• Yellow pepper

• Carrot

• Yellow onion

• 4 Potatoes

• 2 Bananas

• 2 Limes

• Orange

I ended up needing to go back to pick up a few items I forgot but I feel pretty good about my first trip to buy groceries.