Too Many Magos

One of the things I was looking forward to during this trip was experiencing the local cuisines and having access to amazing LOCAL fruits.  One of my favorites is mango.  In Oregon we can get decent mangos, but nothing like the red and yellow mangos that when peeled look like gold on your plate.  They are sweet, a little tangy and you can get them in many different ways.  You can buy pre-cut and peeled green mango, you can put salt on it, or chile on it, or both (which is actually pretty amazing).  However, my favorite still remains to be the simple ripe mango.

On our last night in Granada Nicaragua I went in search of more mango.  I like to buy the whole ones and peel them myself because the pre-cut ones are often greener, which is good but not my favorite.  So in the market on the streets I am asking different vendors what they are asking for mangos and the common one is 3 for $1 (pretty cheap I know, but I can get better if I shop around).  We eventually found a person willing to sell me 12 small mangos (about half the size of the ones we get in the states usually) for $1.  It was the end of the day and I don´t think he wanted to carry them home with him.  So I picked out 12 perfect mangos with the intention of eating some for dinner and then sharing the rest with the friends we have made at the hostel.

So our dinner was fresh mango, avacato (they were amazing!!), local cheese, bread, salad (and in Nicaragua it is cabbage, some carrot, a little spice and a vinigar kind of dressing, very light and refreshing), and some of the most amazing pastries I have EVER had.  However the name of this post is Mangos, not Pastries (I´ll leave that one for Jose to write). So between the two of us we ate four of the mangos.  I ate most of them since they are my favorite and Jose prefers the slightly green ones with salt and chile.  I was in heaven.

The next day I find myself left with 8 mangos still and I don´t want to carry them with me back to San Jose.  I cut up 6 of them to share with our new friends at the hostel, which they appreciated a lot, and I again ate another mango´s worth of the golden deliciousness, maybe more.  I didn´t know when I would next be able to have such wonderful mangos so I took advantage of the opportunity.

The next day however, my body was not pleased.  I suddenly very aware of where the nearest restroom was and I stayed away from fruit for three days.  I, hoever, am not deterred.  I will find more mangos and eat them ALL...just at a more reasonable rate.

My body may have told me that I had had enough mango, but my mouth still waters at the thought of the sweet and tangy flavor of fresh, local mangos.