How Do You Buy Your Fruit?

As an American, I am accustomed to quiet super markets, tranquil farmers markets, and the summer time roadside stand that sells fresh veggies and fruit. Here in Colombia, buying fruit is a whole new venture. Of course, you can settle on the statuesque boring way, where you walk into the super market and (most of) the veggies are washed and stacked in an attractive arrangement. Or you can opt for the colorful, boisterous Latin American way. No need to seek it out, it will come to you! Just listen and you will hear,

"Aguacate!!!!"

Here in Rodadero, every morning between the hours of 10:30 and 1:00, you can here the musical canter of the days selection of fruits. First comes the shouter, his angry grunt drifting in my open window...

" AGUAcaTEEEE!!! aGUACATEEEEE!!!," sounding as though, if you don't come relieve him from his heavy cart of glistening lime green avocados he is going to start throwing them at you.

Then we have the man with the loudspeaker, cheerful, quick and informative, unavoidable....

"Aguacate, limones, maduro...... a mil peso" " Hoy hay aguacate, maduro, limones, un mil... un mil peso!"

And lastly, there is the mellow man. His voice still distinct, just less obtrusive...

"aguacate, aguacate, aguacte... aguacatE... aguacatE"

And they move with lightning speed, circling through the neighborhood, strong voices, reverberating off the tall concrete buildings. If its your lucky day, there may be papaya as well, golden yellow and as large as a watermelon.

Its not just the fruit guys, but this is a common way of selling goods. Some of them ride three wheel bicycle carts. Peddling quickly against traffic, weaving their way in and between buses, taxis, motos, pedestrians and the starving street dogs. We have the Arroz con Lecheeeeeeeeeeee! man, which took me about 6 months to figure out what he was screaming, the bollo man (a cross between a polenta roll and a tamale), carrying his heavy cooler across his shoulder, yelling "Bollo de maiz cerca". Both these gentleman appear in the evenings. In the mornings there are the already spoken of avocado guys, and even earlier, right from the docks is the PesCADO! man, with his array of pargo fish, fresh caught, dangling from a sturdy branch he hoists on his shoulders, his barefeet slapping the hot, dirty pavement, as he calls out hoping for a customer to call back in return, pescado!

Colombia, as I have found in other Latin American countries, is very vocal. People are somehow able to drown out the bizillion of noises that are going on at once, and still maintain a conversation, mind you. We have the street peddlers, who sell anything from food to the can't live without t.v. remote, to my recent discovery of portable video games (yes! t.v. and video games on a cart, which are rolled through the street, ready to play). Then there are the moto taxis and the taxis, whom have the most obnoxious sounding car alarms, whistles, horns and attention-getters you can imagine. Often they congregate below my house around 5:30 to play with their repertoire of whistles. On top of that, here on the coast, it is all either suttley accompanied by the loathful, Vallanato music, or just plain drowned out by the accordions and repetitive rhythms and lyrics. It often times makes me yearn for my parents, quiet backyard, the sound of birds singing, and an occasional rumbling by of a truck or a chainsaw off in the distance.

So how do I buy my fruit? Well, I honestly usually stick to the status quo. Walk into the super market and pick out my fruits and veggies. Avocados however, I do purchase them from the man with his cart outside the grocery store. You can taste them, and they are just so much better and cheaper than the ones that take a week to ripen from the store. But, I haven't quite gotten myself able to yell back, aguacate!, when I can't help but hear the men passing by the house. It still just seems so foreign to me. You do have to admire how hard the people who do work, work to to make a living here, and I often wonder how they do it. When 3 people selling the same product all come through at the same time, in the same place, how do they sell to anyone? I guess in some sense, better competition, but then they are all getting so much less profit.

And now off to finish my delicious fresh avocado, creamy like butter with a little lime, salt and sugar sprinkled on top!