The First 6 Months

So who would believe that I have been living at my site for 6 months already? (And living in Nicaragua for 9 months?) I thought I would be writing more on my blog but as things here become more normal for me I don’t think about writing them down because it doesn’t occur to me anymore that it might be interesting to those of you reading this back home. So I’m going to attempt to write at least every other week if not every week from now on on a different subject. (We’ll see how I do).This weeks topic: fruit.

I am still amazed by the variety of fruits that are down here. The kids have often brought me fruit only to have me ask them “What IS this?” Then they tell me, then I mispronounce it, then they make fun of me every time we have the fruit again. (I don’t think I will EVER live down saying JAcote instead of JOcote. Case in point, when I was writing this and putting photos of the fruit I took on the computer one of the kids came in and saw the jocoto photos and said “Remember when you said JAcote…hahaha.”) :o)

But anyways… They can grow many fruits that we can get in the states (watermelon, mango, papaya, oranges, avocados, bananas, lemons, mandarins, grapefruits, pineapple, coconuts, cantaloupe, and you can find apples and grapes but they are imported and very expensive) and many kinds that we don’t have in the states or at least not in my corner of the states (jocote, calala (passion fruit), fruta del pan (breadfruit), melocotón (star fruit), almendra (a fruit that surrounds almonds), guayabana, guayava, jicaro, mamey, tamarind, nancite, nisparo, pitahaya, noni, anona, plantains, mariñon (the fruit that cashews are attached to) etc…) Below are some pictures of the fruits that are out right now. (Almost all of them were taken right at my house.)


MANGO. Here is one of the mango trees in front of my house just covered in mangos. The season is still going strong here. I have seen at least four different kinds of mango although I believe that there are many more.


ANONA. First of all, I’m not sure if I am spelling this fruit right. My host sister just pointed it out to me in the front yard. I hadn’t even noticed it. It is not ripe, and I haven’t tasted it yet. But it is pretty crazy-looking.


ALMENDRA. This is an almond tree. I remember when I first got here and the kids told me the name of the fruit from this tree was almendra. Later on, someone gave me some almonds (also called almendra). But I didn’t actually put the two together for a while. So the seeds in the fruit can be cracked open to get the almonds. I haven’t tried to yet, but I keep meaning to.


ALMENDRA. A close-up of an un-ripe fruit in bad lighting.


JOCOTE. So these are the jocote. These ones are also unripe. When they are ready to eat they turn yellow and then bright red. I think they are delicious. I can’t wait for the ones outside our house to be ripe. We’ve already had some yellow ones and eaten them. And many people eat them green as well. They are very tart when they are green.


JOCOTE. A look at some jocote branches.


NONI. So as far as I can tell no one here eats noni, and looking at it, why would you? They look like alien slugs or something and smell horrible. But they are often used medicinally here and are known to have great health benefits.


GUAYAVA. I don’t know how to spell this one. It also isn’t ripe but grows right outside my door. As soon as there is a ripe one the kids attack it which is why I couldn’t get a photo of one.


GUANABANA. This guy is also not ripe, like all of the others, and I haven’t tried it yet but I’m looking forward to it. It’s kind of formidable but fun looking at the same time.


TAMARINDO. This here is the tamarind tree that grows in our front yard. It has great shade. It also provides us with tamirind fruits which I also really enjoy. It is kind of tart and sweet. You have to open the seed pods and then eat the fruit off the seeds which are really pretty.


PITAYA. Unfortunately it is not pitahaya season because these are a very cool looking fruit, sort of artichoke-like with the fuchsia-colored fruit on the inside. Here is a pitahaya plant. They grow all over the place on the island, on fences, on trees, or on rocks.