Olocun Botanical & Herbs

To me, this botanica is pretty much a joke. I called the botanica, as it was close to 6:30pm on a week night and I wasn’t sure if the store would be open. A man answered the phone and yelled «ARE YOU COMING?» This pretty much took me aback, and I answered «yes». Then he asked me «ARE YOU COMING NOW!!!» Needless to say, this pretty much concerned me and I almost had second thoughts about going. You had to be buzzed into the botanica, and that also had me concerned. Is the neighborhood bad? Were they not expecting customers? What gives?
Supposedly the owner is a babalawo, but he didn’t greet me the way a Lucumi babalawo would greet me, and he looked somewhat concerned when I greeted him with the appropriate greeting for a babalawo. I have also been told by other people that this «babalawo» claims that he gets mounted by the lwas from the 21 Division. (For those of you «in the know», you already know that’s impossible.)
I asked this gentleman if he had anything in his store relating to the 21 Divisions. He immediately handed me a plastic bag marked ‘OGGUN’ that contained a green and black beaded necklace. Then he tried to sell me a bracelet that was green and yellow and black, and he told me it was for Santa Marta la Dominadora. Mind you, this bracelet was over $ 200. Seriously? He then literally visually scanned the entire botanica attempting to find SOMETHING in that botanica that he could sell me. He handed me two pañuelos (one white, one blue) and said that they were for Anaisa. The price tags said that they pañuelos were $ 60. When I made a stink about the price, he told me that he would sell them to me for 2 for $ 10. I decided to buy the pañuelos (not for Anaisa of course LOL!) and his wife (who was the cashier) wanted to actually charge me $ 60! When I told her that they were $ 10, she didn’t want to believe me. I told her to go and ask her husband and she relented, charging me only $ 10. The «babalawo» then went on to tell me that I should put my «secretos» of the mysterios for Santa Marta la Domindora into a blue and white sopera (which he also tried to sell to me). That my friends, was my cue to leave.
I think the only good things I could say about the place is that they have a good assortment of candles and there is plenty of street parking.

This botanica has an interesting assortment of religious prints. A few that are imported from the Dominican Republic. The owners are very nice people that don’t mind if you browse.
Their candle selection is decent. It is important to note that their 7-​day candles are a good quality wax and not the cheap kind. For this reason they are a bit more.
She did seem knowledgeable about her merchandise and didn’t bombard me with questions about my purchase.
She also has some of your more common herbs and oils. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area. Plenty of street parking too.