People ask what do we do with ourselves all day with no house to clean, cars to maintain or job to go to? Like life anywhere and especially on a boat there are always things that need fixing, cleaning, or replacing. We have meals to prepare and for that of course one has to go shopping. At home we have a nice refrigerator with a freezer. On Pacifico we have a small 12V refrigerated locker, about the size of a 32 quart ice chest, a portable 12V 45 quart freezer unit, and a beverage locker that is not refrigerated. We keep that locker cold by using “blue ice” blocks and have enough for a daily rotation, ½ of them go into the ice locker and the other ½ back into the freezer for tomorrow’s exchange. It’s not the most efficient use of the freezer, but it works, we have cold beverages and it allows all of the refrigerated locker to be utilized for food. The blue ice takes up about 1/3 of the freezer leaving adequate storage space for frozen food and perhaps more importantly, for ice!

When we are in the larger cities, or like La Cruz which is close to Puerto Vallarta, we have access to a variety of large and plentiful supermarkets, Mega, Commercial and Soriana as well as Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Costco. They are a ½ hour bus ride away and we take our cloth bags with us for carrying our groceries back to the boat, way more durable than plastic and they have shoulder straps. We only go into these large stores for a major shopping event when we are getting ready to leave the dock and be out for a while. Sometimes we’ll share a taxi back with another boat and really stock up. Cruising in Mexico is not like going to Antarctica. People eat every day and there and every little community has their Abarrotes; little neighborhood markets. These stores stock limited supplies, but enough for the daily things everyone needs frequently and some stock fresh produce. The quality of the produce varies and are better the closer to delivery date because they are not kept in a refrigerated, sprinkled display. The ‘fruitas y verduras’ maybe kept in crates on the floor, boxes on tables, open shelves or displayed outside in similar fashion. It’s best not to buy too much, shelf life is not more than a few days. We shop more often and buy less. This is a photo of the larger grocery store here in Barra taken at night and you can see the local “Churro” vender cart there in front. Churros are best when fresh and hot right out of the fryer. These things are cooked by dipping in hot oil on a stainless rod. The rod is pulled and the void filled with either chocolate or caramel filling, then rolled in a sugar and cinnamon mix. Delicioso!