Blog 2: Pleasure and Pain

The big manga

 It is mango season—a wonderful time to be in Costa Rica! Dozens of varieties of mangos grow here and in the gardens surrounding the house are at least seven huge trees that are starting to ripen. There are both medium sized mangoes and massive “mangas” that must weigh two pounds each.

Mangoes ready to ripen next to the kitchen

Walking home from Spanish class this morning, I came across a beautiful tree with massive fruit that was already starting to fall onto the ground. Malachite Green butterflies attracted to the fallen fruit fluttered in the shade of the tree and birds scoped out the feast from the branches above. As I was picking the largest manga to take home for breakfast, I bumped into several more hanging fruits which made a strange rattling sound. The sound immediately materialized into a small buzzing clump of angry wasps which drove me running from their nest. They stung me as I ran and didn’t stop until I had pulled off all of my clothes which they were clinging to (good thing I am always wearing a bathing suit!). I suffered five stings for my carelessness and started back up the hill to home gathering up all of my belongings which I had thrown to the ground in my flight and feeling a bit sorry for my aching self.

Malachite Green Butterfly

On the way though, I encountered another gift: a large cashew tree loaded with ripe yellow fruit. The cashew is a curious tree: the large, fleshy fruit (actually the swollen stem) is called the apple and is edible and below it hangs a single nut in a shell, both of which are poisonous until roasted. Even the gases given off while roasting are poisonous so this is a nut to be handled carefully!

Cashew tree with yellow fruit

Cashews ripening with "apple" above and nut below

I selected several of the ripest fruit for a smoothie and will put the nuts out to dry in the sun. After the painful stings of the wasps, I am not sure whether I am up to risking my health with the cashews, but after tasting that fresh sliced mango, intensely sweet and piney,  it was worth the stings!