Shopping

Shopping here is always an adventure. In Malabo, there's just not a whole lot to shop for, other than food. For the less adventuresome, there's the biggest of the grocery stores "Martínez Hermanos" which usually has most everything you need, albeit at reasonably steep prices. They say it's best to go there during the week, with Thursdays maybe being the optimum day as shipments are rumored to come in on Wednesdays. Better to avoid weekends, if possible, as things can get a bit hectic with the crowds then. And by all means, you can forget about any mid-afternoon shopping. Among the few customs still practiced from their Spanish colony days is the siesta. Whatever's not been purchased by 1pm isn't going to happen until 4 or 5pm when the stores reopen after the siesta break.


Slightly more of an adventure are the smaller grocery stores, such as the "Guinaco" store right down the street from Martínez Hermanos. It's worth the trip there just for their homemade bread selections. But it's a much smaller place, with only two narrow aisles. So it can get crowded in a hurry. And the only way out is through the check-out line, so going just to browse may not be such a great idea.


While there are a few other of the smaller grocery stores in and around town, there aren't but a handful of them. One of the few good deals can be found at the semi-open air "panaderías" where a small loaf of fresh bread will cost you about 10 cents.


But for the true adventurist, it's hard to beat a trip out into the countryside. Heading south along the road to Luba, you'll run across plenty of roadside vendors ready to sell the fruits and vegetables from their own little plots of land. Plátanos are everywhere, but their prices have sky-rocketed, with a big bunch of them now going for upwards of $18. Beyond the other items you would typically expect to find in the tropics are a few surprises. First are the large snails, which apparently are considered to be a real delicacy. Then there are what can only be described as fat rats, which hang temptingly by their tails in groups on the sale racks. We haven't checked on their prices, but I'm taking a pass on them, even if they are real bargains. And finally there's the occasional "antelope" hanging on the rack. They look like pygmy versions of deer -- sort of like undernourished (and now unfortunately deceased) Rudolphs. I'll pass on them, too.

And then there's even one more option. Further out in the countryside you can actually sometimes find the folks gathering their vegetables from the fields. If you can find them, they seem to always be willing to sell direct. By cutting out the middleman, their prices are often much better than you'll find anywhere else. But this option is not for everyone, since it can involve a fair amount of trekking through the brush to find anyone.

And finally there's the public market in Malabo. Just getting there is an enormous challenge, with the roads to and from being virtually non-existent, and parking being a free-for-all. What would be considered by most western standards as bad to horrid conditions for a marketplace only get worse during this time of year, when the rains leave mostly mud for patrons and vendors alike to endure. This one's only for the very hearty shopper. After my one visit there, I vowed to myself to always appreciate a good shopping trip to Martínez Hermanos.