So I took a trip to downtown Puerto Plata to scope out the food situation. This included stopping by a couple of restaurants and sampling local dishes- just to make sure the ingredients were satisfactory. They passed. Next, I asked around about grocery store prices and quality. I narrowed it down to Supermercado Tropical vs. La Sirena. I was told that Tropical had better prices and selection for canned goods and dry items, whereas La Sirena was the place for meats and vegetables. Since we were planning on stopping in Luperon and we were mainly in the market for nonperishable items it became advantage Tropical. Tropical also ran a free pickup truck shuttle to the marina where we were docked. The decision was made.
I had a working list of foods that we were running out of, as well as new items that would be good to have. I translated the list into Spanish (and looked up how to say a few things, like Baking Soda and Pancake Syrup). We took the shuttle to the store, stopping along the way to eat some charcoal roasted chicken with fried sweet potatoes (don't shop when you're hungry, no no no!).
We targeted domestically-produced items when possible, as they were far less expensive than the same item produced in the US. Here's some of what we bought: chick peas, corn flakes, black beans, green olives, soy sauce, vanilla extract, cake mix, pasta, chicken bouillon cubes, mayonnaise, fruit cocktail, raisins, prunes, canned pears, flour, peanuts, rice, pancake syrup, olive oil, salad dressing, bread crumbs, raisin bran, granulated sugar, brown sugar, granola bars, a box of milk, vegetable oil, cocoa, bread, arepas, margarine, balsamic vinegar, cheddar cheese, honey, pancake syrup, baking soda and an oven mitt.
The bill came to RD$ 4,163, which was about US $113. Not bad! The next step will be to load up on fruits and vegetables before going offshore towards the Windward Passage between Haiti and Cuba- neither of which will be stops for us. No more stores until Jamaica.
