I've been initiated into the world of shopping by my ever wonderful girlfriend Eunes. Before this I've only been shopping for at most a two hour stretch. I've now been allowed to join the shopping gang since I've gotten my first beat down. I've been in Mexico lately in Tulum, Quintana Roo. It's a small but quickly growing town located about 3 hours south of Cancun. Well, it's been three weeks since I've seen her and I had forgotten my paperwork (as in my current registration of my truck) in Dangriga before I left. Yes, it was stupid.

I was ready to bus it back to Dangriga. Here's the scenerio. Remember the old school buses that you used to ride as a kid? You know, the yellow "Blue Bird" buses? Well instead of being laid to rest as they should, they go into the public transportation in Belize (eternal flaming damnation). Of course they are painted bright colors and given colorful names but it is what it is..... a very old school bus on it's last leg without air conditioning. Eunes offered to bring it to me. It's quite a ride and she was willing to endure that and a plane flight in a crappy little plane too.

She wanted to shop in Chetumal. It's her yearly thing. Once a year, she gets to feel normal. I'm not sure what normal even feels like. I really don't care. We don't have the international retail chains, stores, and general merchandise that the rest of the world has. I like that about Belize. There was a KFC and a Subway but they both went out of business. Good. There is no Chilli's, TGIF, McDonald's, or any other chain restaurant. If we do get things from abroad, it's generally very overpriced. For example, gas here in Mexico is about $2.25 a gallon and $2.28 in Texas. In Belize, it's over $5.00 a gallon right now. Anyway, I offered to go shopping with her, carry her bags, treat her to all the junk food she could eat, and not complain because she was bringing up the paperwork. 

I picked her up at the border on Thursday afternoon. She had to travel most of the day after working all morning just to get meet me at the Belize-Mexico border by evening. It took awhile to find a hotel near the Liverpool Mall in Chetumal but we did. We stayed at Santa Theresa Hotel by the way. It was clean, had free WiFi, a restaurant, secured parking off street, and nice big rooms to store boat loads of shit you've bought all for about $50.00 USD a night. I know many people, mostly women in Belize, that must have a shopping fix once or twice a year in Chetumal. I should have known.

You know what? I've been passing by Liverpool Mall for two years now. I'll go in to the McDonald's outside the mall, get a burger and hit the road. I thought that Liverpool Mall was just the Liverpool Department store and what I saw from the front side. I never bothered to go in one of the doors. Holy shit! That place was way bigger inside; food courts, little kiosks, other department stores, and more. I go into Chetumal swing by get a burger and head for Sam's Club. I can get everything I need at Sam's Club and be out the door in twenty minutes. I'll spend more time waiting in the check out line than shopping.

This blog is dragging on so I'm going to get moving. We shopped all day starting at 8 am with a fine Burger King breakfast. My little Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Croissanwich had refried beans in it. We went through almost every store in the Liverpool Mall. It's a large and truly spectacular American style mall in every sense. We went there and when we were done there we went to another one! We bought stuff for her and everyone we knew and then we bought more stuff, all sorts of stuff. We bought boxer short, chocolate, blouses (lots of them), pants (lots of them), bras, underwear, DVDs, cups, a small plate, some small shiny thing, make up, spa stuff, and a whole lot more I can't remember. We walked or rather she walked the entire time. She sat down only to eat. I sat down a lot and where ever I could. I was dismissed a couple of times so I ate something while I sat down and waited.

I am in awe of most all women's fascination with shopping. I honestly just don't understand it. It was like watching a competitve sport. It was exhausting for me. I think we shopped for about ten hours or so. I am told we accomplished quite a bit. I did some shopping too though. I bought some stuff at a grocery store and some other stuff at Sam's Club. Oh yeah, I got two shirts, two short, light bulbs, and a tackle box. We ate lots of junk food too, mainly from Burger King and McDonalds. However, we did eat some really crappy Chinese food. Don't go for the crappy Chinese food since there's plenty of that in Belize. I think we topped out at around $60.00 USD or so in junk food.

It was all worth it though. I got to spend some time with my gal. I really missed her. She got to go shopping and feel normal for a short fleeting moment. She was happy and that is what counted for me. She was happy so I was happy. So we both were happy shopping for stuff, lots and lots of stuff, bags and bags full of stuff. I went shopping with her all day. I carried all the bags so she was unencumbered. I took her out for junk food. I got my paperwork. We spent some well deserved time together. We were happy and I did not complain once. I never will.

Regards,

Ben

PS: I didn't get any real pictures since once we got started there was no time to stop. I'm going to swing back by on my way to Sam's Club so I can post some other shots with this blog.