Saturday is market day for us. My expert shopper husband does the supermarket and I do what would be equivalent to a farmers market in the States – but more! I take my shopping bags and walk the two blocks to “La Feria de la América”. This particular group of Saturday venders set up their stands along 4 blocks thus transforming a street that is highly trafficked during the week into a plethora of produce perfect for the pedestrians’ purchasing power. The whole experience is rich!
As I come within meters of my market there is a bunch of eager adolescents with wheelbarrow in hand and toothy grin on face greeting me, “¿Le ayudo?” (Can I help you?) The very first week I went it was hard to choose who to help me. So I let a couple of the girls accompany me. The next week I wised up. My decision would be that the first kid to make it to me I would let help me. So each week they come running; they know that I tip well. This last week Jason helped me; he just happens to be one of our stars students in the Sunday school class at our church. Not too many weeks back he won a great prize for memorizing the books of the Old Testament.
Then the shopping begins. By nature I am not a shopper; so I changed it. I make social calls. I go to the same stands each week. They know me and I know them. They give me great prices and I give them a nice chat. So I walk with my helper following. I pick what I want, tell them how much I want, they weigh it and hand it to the helper, we chat a bit, and I pay and move on. After about a half an hour the wheelbarrow is full of fruits, vegetables, and other odds-and-ends household items. We walk to the end of the market to catch a taxi. The kid helps me load up the taxi with my bags then I give my tip.
It’s really quite fun. I also usually bump into some other shopper that I know and we chat as well. This is the routine: Kisses to say hi before we talk. Start with, “How are you? Good. Good.” Adore the child if they happen to be accompanied by one. Talk. Then kisses to say bye.
I get the usual: apples, grapes, bananas, pineapple, strawberries, oranges, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, green beans, peppers, etc. for my family. But sometimes I find something that I have never seen before and get it to give it a try. This fruit is called achachairu. It may have different names or spellings in different regions. There is a variety of achachairu. We like ‘em all.
7 comments:
what an adventure! how wonderful to get such a variety of fresh fruits each week!
the achachairu looks a bit like large litchis...
I wish I could come shopping with you! You should post some pictures of the market.
love you, amiga
this was a great blog, angie! i really enjoyed reading about live in bolivia! how fun -- to me it sounds like a movie :) and "angiesita" (sp?) is a cutie pie just like her namesake!
Thanks for the info, Angie! This doesn't look exactly like it. They were smaller - about the size of very large grapes. The skin was hard and popped off, and the inside was tangy and sweet. The fruit was wrapped around a pit, and the fruit itself was kinda slimy in texture. I'll have to check out Alece's suggestion of litchi. Thanks!
Sorry, this is not a picture of achachairu. I have an achachairu growing in a pot on my back porch and hope that it will fruit in a couple of years. Achachairu is also known as Garcinia humilis or Rheedia laterifolia (older name) and is related to mangosteen.
That fruit is rambutan, not achachairu. It tastes similar to lichia.
that fruit is OCORÓ....
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