The Fruit Market

Every two or three weeks Karen goes to the fruit market to buy fresh fruits and vegetables for Casa de Esperanza. We told her we would start doing this some. There is a Torch group coming in tomorrow and we wanted to buy fruit for our group for breakfast. We knew we needed to go with Karen once because she knows her way around the market so well.

For seven years Marc and I have been coming in and out of Honduras and working on the mountains where the soil is hard and rocky. I have never seen anything grow here but just a few scraggly rows of corn. I thought nothing could be grown here. We walked inside the market and imagine my surprise to find there are fresh fruits and vegetables of every variety, locally grown, not shipped in. We saw a patchwork of colored tarps over each vendor's little wooden stand. There is one vendor Karen tries to buy as much as possible from and she introduced us to this wonderful lady named Ana Rosa. There is no way to buy everything from just one vendor. The vegetables are on one side and the fruit is on another. Ana Rosa lets us store our goods at her stand until we are completely finished. Almost all of the vendors will cut a piece of fruit or a vegetable open for you to see. Many will let you taste. There was this fruit and I so wanted to know what it was. It was much smaller than a golfball, slightly oval shaped with a fairly smooth skin. It is called a cibuela. The vendor sliced one open for me. It had a peachy taste, very sweet, but no where near the same texture and consistency. Only one word came to mind. Heavenly. We definitely bought some of those. The pineapples were perfect. Huge pineapples for only a dollar. We bought pineapples, oranges, papayas, avocados and so much more. The vendors will bargain a little and more so once they know you. We were purchasing from one vendor and then another and rushing over to Ana Rosa's to store our fruit until we were ready to leave. When we were finally finished she gave me some yuca pronounced you-ka. It is a potato like vegetable that is suppose to be divine. I really can't wait to try it. Then she had her son cart our many purchases to the truck. He used a wooden wheelbarrow like thing with no sides. Several people were using these to cart wares for the buyers. Many were obviously home made.

Marc and I had a delightful time at the fruit market and can't wait to go again.

Feliz fin de semana. (Have a great weekend).

Terri