Grocery shopping in the sticks

One of the downsides of not having a motor vehicle in Guiones is the difficulty and expense of keeping stocked with groceries. In town, there is a tiny organic-food store and a slightly larger "mini." Slightly out of town, past the only local nightclub, La Banana, is the closest "super," which is bigger and cheaper than the mini, but not by much. I haven't tried the organic store yet; I've assumed - maybe erroneously - that the prices there are astronomical, and it's a little further out of my way than the mini. I mean to investigate it sooner or later. But I've done plenty of shopping at the mini and the super.

The mini is as conveniently located as anything in town can be. The footpath I take into town spits me out right in front of it. But it's still a 10-minute walk home, so my purchases are necessarily limited to how much I can stand to carry while I hike back along that footpath through the woods, usually at around 1pm in the height of the day's heat.

A trip to the super involves borrowing a fixed-gear beach cruiser-style bicycle from the Surf Simply bike rack and making a very hot and unpleasant uphill slog on the dirt road out of town while all manner of SUVs, trucks, and motorcycles roar past, kicking up Lawrence of Arabia-grade clouds of dust. But once or twice a week it just has to be done. The limiting factor of my purchases at the super is how much weight and volume I can carry in the bike's basket.

There's also a produce truck that makes a stop by my apartment Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I think we're on their route because Sarah, the Surf Simply chef, buys all her produce from them every week, but several of my yogi neighbors and I have taken to buying fruits and veggies from them too. The truck has a wider selection of produce than the stores and their prices are much lower to boot, but you do have to hang around waiting for them to show up. The truck is not refrigerated, by the way - it's actually pretty sweltering inside. You can't really stock up because the produce goes bad pretty quickly. You climb up the rickety makeshift steps formed by three overturned plastic crates, pick your stuff, give it to the guys to weigh it, and pay whatever they tell you. Yesterday I got the following items for under $10 total:

• 1 dozen eggs
• 1 pineapple
• 1 mango
• 5 bananas
• 1 bunch celery
• 2 yellow onions
• 9 oz mushrooms
• 1 bunch basil

Cheaper than the Whole Foods at home, and delivered (almost) to my door!