Fresh Direct, Mayan Style

Fresh Direct

As we have lived in Guatemala there are only a few amenities we have missed from America. Fresh Direct stands out as the biggest one, Amazon second… and maybe Seamless as the 2nd runner up. We are so used to having everything just brought to us, and we have gotten really lazy (over time).

We are fortunate in our rental to have a great staff already built in. Matteo, our assistant gardner’s family has become a fixture in our life in more ways then one. His daughter has come to play with Iza, his dog sleeps on the property at night, his brother-in-law is Kurt’s assistant and now his mom has become my personal market shopper (i.e. Fresh Direct).

There is a town on top of the hill, away from the lake, called Santa Clara. Here is where Matteo is from and his mom still lives. On the weekends and on Wednesday’s there is a tremendous market. I give Matteo a list in Spanish on Tuesday’s and Friday’s and a bounty is returned on Wednesday and Saturday afternoon via Matteo. Since Matteo’s Mama doesn’t read or write Spanish (solo Katchiquel), Matteo translates for her and then he translates back with a receipt and the costs. Normally for a countertop full of food, including a watermelon, papaya and pineapple, it is about $13 and the delivery fee is built in.

We are thinking about starting a text-message based tuc tuc system where we can have a network of drivers working together. We would text the main guy and he would text his team to deliver. We are thinking we could do this in 2 shifts of 8 hours, so most of the day is covered.

Across the water from us is Salud Para Vida, which is the health food store that imports from Miami. Here we can buy most of the food that we would buy in a Whole Foods in the States. It is across the lake (about 20 minutes) and you would typically travel by boat to get there. You can take a Tuc Tuc however, but that takes about 40 minutes and it is quite rough terrain. If we get a boat system together and have coconut ice cream, organic popcorn and Chilean wine delivered at 9pm… just in time for a Netflix Movie.

How awesome would this all be?!