I was told shortly after our arrival that there was a store that would actually deliver your groceries to your house! What a miracle! How simple! We walked down two hills, across "El Plan" and took a bus to a huge grocery store called Jumbo (pronounced Joomboh). Perfect! It was a blast! They had almost everything we wanted. We even bought a jar of salsa that said it was made in (drum roll...) El Paso, Texas! Que divertido!
Making our way home was a little more complicated than we had anticipated but we are here now. And we certainly know Valparaiso better! This town is so clever in dealing with challenges. Hills too steep? Build an outdoor escalator/elevator/gondola. Most people don't drive cars? Incredible public transportation including trolleys, communal taxis and a million buses. Very inventive place. They seem to crave challenges!
Pictures to follow!
Julie,
ReplyDeleteI have tried to post in Spanish, but my cell phone won't allow it. It continually corrects the spelling and then I have to reenter and reenter etc. So, from now on, we post in English.
Your description reminds us of the Bronx when we were young. We walked to school, to church, to the movies etc. We shopped in small stores on 183rd St. Roloff's was the Deli, Zucker's the grocery.. Albert's was the drug store and Rocco sold fruits and vegetables. The cleaners, the meat store, the fish store. All of these would deliver within an hour of your call. Milk and The Bronx Home News were delivered to your door each day. I delivered orders for Zucker which is how I worked my way through High School. Mail was delivered twice a day and three times a day in December. The latter was another job that I did each year. It was really quite a civilized way to live.
So, we have concluded that you must be living large down there as you are approaching the quality of life in the Bronx -- the peak of 20th Century civilization