Having fun with Colombian fruit


I had the most marvellous day on Monday. Across the street from where I am staying there is the most wonderful, fresh fruit supermarket. It is an explosion of color in the form of the strangest fruits that I have ever seen.


[Below] The first thing that caught my eye was the enormous pumpkins.. ready for Halloween. Yay!


[Below] Of course I asked before I went around with my excited, trigger-happy finger twitching on my camera - I have learned my lesson from so many other countries, where the security guards approach and accost. The beautifully friendly Colombian people welcomed me into their store, gave Stefi (my host) and I their blessings and welcomed me back whenever I like.

After about 20 minutes of pouncing around like a schoolboy in a chocolate factory, Arelis (the supervisor) approached and led me around the store explaining the uses of all the strange fruits which I had never seen before. And she kindly gave us numerous fruits to try for the first time.


[Below] Among those that we tried we these tiny oranges. I asked, "Who has the patience to peel these things?"
"You don't," replied Arelis, taking one and popping it in directly in her mouth.
I followed suit and was shocked to discover that it tasted exactly as an unpeeled orange would taste: horrible! I spent the next ten minutes rushing all around the store finding free samples to quash the lingering taste in my mouth.

The tiny oranges appear big in the following photo but only because Stefi was holding them close to the camera. In actually fact the largest was no more than 2.5cm in diameter.


[Below] One of the fruits that I did recognise... Grenadines.


[Below] More free samples. I don't know what it was, but it was a white and viscous drink. Hmm... now that I think about it I don't want to know.


[Below] Okay, so it wasn't just me who didn't know what the heck you're supposed to do with these fruits. Some of them actually had instructions. "Meet RĂ¡bano Blanco."


[Below] Delicious oranges. They had to re-stock the sample plate after we finished with it.


[Below] I have no idea what this was. All I know is that it was big, brown and could be used as a weapon.


[Below] Something from the banana family, but not bananas.


[Below] And just in case you didn't realise how big those pumpkins were... they were bigger than my head!




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