Milk and cookies

     In much of Nicaragua, but particularly in the autonomous regions that are home to False Bluff and Bluefields, many things are packaged in plastic pouches. Part of the reason for this is because a huge quantity of stuff comes here via air or sea; and more pouches fit into cartons with less breakage. And part of the reason is that when you're shopping you can select the size of pouch you want, from very small to not as small...and when you don't have a refrigerator that's pretty important (and lots of people here don't have refrigerators).
     Until recently there was no reliable cross-country road that connected the country's west with its east, and a lot of non-natives say that given the current condition of the road it might as well be nonexistent. But folks from Bluefields at least are happy with with the new road because it cuts down on the cost and time to get to Managua and because the goods that are traveling into Bluefields are cheaper. But I doubt that even the new road will mean that mayonnaise and mustard will begin arriving in the glass and/or plastic jars we in the U.S. are used to.
     Nor will milk begin showing up that way in the stores although cookies have long been wrapped in plastic or paper: for instance, a package of Oreos on a shelf in Bluefields is almost indistinguishable from a package of Oreos on a shelf in, say, Boston...except for the language, all of which except "Oreos" is Spanish. 
     On a recent boat trip to False Bluff (I think we were almost in Smokey Lane Lagoon by the time I got this picture), at least one member of the crew heading out there to work on a house that's being built at Las Tortugas for some U.S. neighbors, enjoyed a snack of milk and cookies.
     Washing a cookie down with a sip of milk...