Halloween Thrift Store Shopping

I'm thankful for the fun of pulling together a Halloween costume (which I won't show you now, because that takes all the fun and surprise out of it...)

I headed up Calle Principal after breakfast to scour the "pacas", the Guatemalan version of thrift stops.  The first one I come to is claustrophobically crowded with clothes, and two employees are going through more clothing to hang on the racks (Clothing comes down from the States in giant bales. I have to wonder if it's the clothes our 2nd hand shops don't sell and then send on when they get new donations).  There doesn't quite seem to be room for another person in there, so I skip it and head into the next, almost directly across the street. Everything is packed so tightly on the racks it's hard at first to discern if there's any order, but it seems that at the very least kids clothes and adult's clothes are separated.  I find a couple shirts that might work- but one's too big and the other's not really the right color, so I pop into the next one, practically next store.

One of many Pacas

I make my way up the street, searching through just discernibly organized racks of clothes (no size or color organization here).  By the time I've gone into the 4th shop on the block I've found what I'm looking for and continue on to the fabric shop.  It's just another couple of blocks away, but I think I pass another 4 pacas before I get there.  The man behind the counter cuts off 3 yards of ribbon for me and I head off to my 2nd to last stop- the market.  The inside of the market is like a maze of little stalls.  I'm looking for a hat and I'm not sure they sell them here, but if 6 months of life in Pana have taught me anything, it's that if you can't find it in the market, it might not be for sale.  So, I wind through the narrow stalls, trying to go about it in an orderly way so I don't miss anything.  Finally, I spy a table stacked with hats.  I pick one up and look at it.  It's 200 Q ($25), out of my price range for a Halloween costume.  The woman shows me her "economic" options, tells me they're 90 Q, but she'll give me a discount of 85.  I try it on, look interested but not convinced.  She drops it to 80.  I figure I really need the hat to complete my costume, so I buy it.  There's only one thing left on my list- fake flowers.  I have a faint recollection that I may have seen them in a store that reminds me of the dollar store if the dollar store had aisles that were so narrow it's hard to pass someone.  My memory doesn't fail me and I find the flowers in a narrow row between office supplies and kitchen wares.  Everything purchased, I look at my watch as I walk home- it's only been an hour.  Not bad at all for the number of shops I went into!