Belmopan Shopping

As we passed through Belmopan, in both directions, we took the time to stop at Brodie's department store on the eastern side of the town. In both cases we picked up some bottles of water and wine (US$13.80 per bottle of 'cheap' Chilean stuff) as well as home-made banana bread that made for a nice quick snack in isolated places like Hopkins on the coast or Crooked Tree inland. Later, when we visited Belize City, we also had a look in the large flagship store of this family chain that has been serving Belize since 1887. These stores have a good selection of items and will take credit cards and also give you discount coupons if you use cash.

Another company that saw our business was Shell, with their petroleum stations. We filled up our rental vehicle at one just outside the international airport when we picked it up and once again in Belmopan (shown here) when we were on our way back to drop it off. Although the Belize $ is pegged at two for every US$, they use Imperial gallons rather than the smaller US gallons (0.83 of an Imperial) when dealing with gasoline. The cheapest grade of gasoline was US$4.69/Imperial gallon. I started to get worried when the rental tank following pick-up, showing 2/3 full, required the attendant to pump US$62 into it to bring it to maximum!! In the end, we drove almost 200 miles before the indicator even dropped back to 'Full' !