The simplest of tasks sometimes take on a whole new flavor in another country. In this case, bra shopping. My girl friend got surprise invited to a wedding in Cancun by a man she met on the road and needed a strapless bra to go with her dress. Bra/bikini straps may be fine to display while on the backpacker circuit, but not so much at a wedding. So she and I headed off to find one. Not so hard, right?

Off we go to the streets of Valladolid, the Yucatan’s third largest city. We went in clothing stalls, shiny commercial shops (most with very small lingerie sections), and stores devoted exclusively to women’s underwear. It was in latter that we noticed something–every bra was cup size B. Seriously, every single bra. The band size at least had a little variety, from 34 to 38. Anything else, out of luck. We pushed on, and the Bs continued. We stopped in another three stores before we found a single non-B size bra. Finally, in a weird hybrid underware/bathing suit/children’s clothing shop we finally found one unsized, no underwire, strapless band that actually worked.

But come on, it should not be that hard. Forget about strapless, what about finding a normal bra in a different size? Not every woman in this town is a size 34-38B. Not even the majority! Either that or they are all seriously mis-sized. Where the hell are they finding their underwear? Is there a secret underground locals-only underwear market we are unaware of?!