SuperMaxi: Ecuador Grocery Store

We headed into the big city today…Ibarra. I have heard population estimates from 70,000 to 120,000, regardless it is a much bigger town than Cotacachi with a population of around 8,000.

Many people drive to Ibarra to go shopping for hard to find items, or for products and services that simply are not available in Cotacachi. The towns are about 20 kilometers apart, say 13 miles. This is our second trip in the past month to the grocery store called SuperMaxi which is very similar to what we are used to in the states, in fact, it is nicer than many grocery stores I’ve been to in the U.S..

The bus ride takes about 40 minutes and traverses a mountain road part of the way that provides breath taking beauty and hair raising excitement. The road is actually not that bad, we’ve driven it in a taxi previously…but when you are sitting up high in the bus seats the view straight down the mountain side gives you pause.

The cost for the bus ride…$1.35 for 3 of us!

We had a cart full of groceries when we spotted some Artichokes that were labeled $.67. Now Gigi LOVES artichokes but they are usually so expensive that we don’t buy them very often. At this price we were going to make her artichokes for dinner. Turns out we spent $.41 for 4 artichokes…the price of $.67 was a per kilo price!!

We decided to have burgers, fries, and artichokes for dinner. Kinda a home cookin’ dinner to round out a great week. Also, we can’t buy hamburger buns in Cotacachi so this would be a treat that we don’t have in Ecuador very often.

We took a cab ride home instead of lugging a bunch of grocery bags on the bus ride back to Cotacachi. The taxi ride is much more expensive, costing us $10.00.

When we returned home we spent our last $.30 on potatoes…we bought 6 potatoes for this price & turned them into delicious homemade french fries.

Dinner was a success. Gigi loved her artichokes! In fact, I she did not eat much of her burger or fries and shared everyone’s artichoke.

We are already looking forward to our next trip in a couple of weeks, and maybe finding another treat at SuperMaxi to make our stay in Ecuador just a little more like home.