Abaco Pines / Grocery Costs / Gillam Bay

We wanted to go on a scouting mission to Marsh Harbour on Great Abaco with the objective of checking current grocery prices. We took the ferry from Green Turtle to Treasure Cay where we picked up a rental car that we had pre-arranged.

One of the first things you notice is the dead trees. Great Abaco had a massive pine forest. The island produced a substantial amount of pine lumber during at least two separate eras. Now, most of the trees are dead due to the saltwater brought by the storm surge and heavy winds of Hurricane Dorian.

Our goal for this mission was to take photos of typical products that we buy in the U.S. In many cases, we took photos of both name brand and generic products. Dozens of photos can be found on our blog at PotcakeParadise.com. So, if this topic interests you more please check it out!

Next, we found Colors Bahamian Restaurant for lunch which was one of the only sit-down restaurants open at the time. In fact, we’d be returning the next day to meet the Abaco Shelter volunteers for lunch here.

Now let’s be honest. We’re coffee snobs. One thing we have found lacking in the Abacos is good coffee. I must mention that we are sorely disappointed that we never had a chance to check out Hope Town Coffee (RIP).

Well, we have high hopes for Calypso Coffee in Marsh Harbour, especially since we learned during this trip that they were opening a second location on Green Turtle. As of late 2021, it’s open and we can’t wait to try it out. On this travel day, we couldn’t find their post-hurricane location and no phone numbers were working.

So, after a failed attempt at finding Calypso Coffee, we headed back to Green Turtle in our rental car to have a late visit to the beach. Gillam Bay was the roughest we’d experienced, but still did not disappoint!