Great Friends and Strange Fruit

It’s hard to imagine that I could ever get tired of gorging myself on fresh lobster, shrimp, conch, and snapper, served with those delicious Honduran side dishes of peas and rice, but the other day I finally reached my limit. I was ready for some local fruit.

Some of us decided to check around the local stands in the town, and we spent a few hours just strolling and checking out what’s in season.

The fresh fruits here are SO MUCH BETTER than the store bought stuff we get at home. Chances are better than good that if you’re slurping up papaya or mango tonight, it was still in the tree this morning. Chase it with some coconut water, and you begin to believe that Robinson Crusoe didn’t have it so bad, after all. (by the way, did you know that, during the Second World War in the Pacific theater, coconut water (it’s sterile when it comes out of the nut) was used as an intravenous fluid to replace blood loss in soldiers? ) I love history!

At Marea, we have Nanci trees all over our property, and they are now bearing fruit. The Nanci fruit is a bright yellow berry, about the size of my thumbnail, and it is covering the ground all around us as we walk under the tree canopy, approaching the white, sandy beach. It’s great gathering up all this fruit.

We are competing with myriads of birds who are also feasting on these sweet, tasty morsels. The smell of ripe Nanci leaves a sweet, musty aroma that lingers throughout. I’ve never smelled anything like it. A really pleasant fragrance.

The Noni trees at Marea are also bearing fruit. Unlike the Nanci, the Noni fruit isn’t cute or pleasant to look at (it kind of resembles a deformed cucumber with a major breakout of warts). To add insult to injury, the rotting Noni fruit emits a perfume reminiscent of a skunk. But all is not lost. The Noni doesn’t start to stink until after it starts to rot, and also is generally believed to contain embarrassingly huge amounts of anti-oxidants and when juiced, is said to be way healthy. Maybe one day I’ll give it a shot.

We have made wonderful friends here in Trujillo. Canadians from Toronto, Lucia and Florian have also bought property in Trujillo, just west of town, and they absolutely love it here. Now we’ve all gone on a major fruit buying binge, we’ve probably spent 5 dollars between us, and we’re getting ready to finish the day with a sumptuous feast plucked right from Mother Nature’s arms.

On the menu tonight: Papaya, Pineapple, Mangoes, Bananas (the baby kind which are soooooooo sweet), and lots of great libation.

Not a bad way to end another day in paradise (if you really can’t eat another lobster……)